The women’s individual epee and men’s individual sabre elimination event kicked off fencing’s return to France. In a thrilling Round of 32, defending Olympic gold medalists from both events were eliminated. Here’s what to know.

In a stunning upset, Tokyo gold medalist Sun Yiwen of China was eliminated in the Round of 32 by Japan’s Miho Yoshimura, who advanced from the Round of 64. Sun narrowly lost 14-13 to Yoshimura in a sudden-death tiebreaker round.

Italy’s Rossella Fiamingo, who was eager to claim the Olympic champion title for Italy on “enemy territory,” fell to American Anne Cebula in the Round of 32. The fencers tied 14-14 in the final minute before going to the one-minute tiebreaker match in which Cebula prevailed.

“The first bout at the Olympics is always very, very tricky... It’s the most difficult bout of the day because you need to break the ice with that,” Fiamingo said. “And when you’re 14-14 at the end, it’s always risky because anything can really happen.”

Advancing to semifinals:
Vivian Kong (Hong Kong)
Nelli Differt (Estonia)
Eszter Muhari (Hungary)
Auriane Mallo (France)

BRACKET

World No. 1 and three-time defending Olympic champion Aron Szilagyi of Hungary was denied a four-peat after falling to Canadian Fares Arfa in the men's individual sabre event.

“It’s really a shock,” Szilagyi said. “It was like as if he’d been the three-time Olympic champion, and I was some kind of first-time Olympian.”

Arfa had a strong start to the round and finished 15-8, but was later eliminated in the Round of 8 against Oh Sang-Uk.

American Eli Dershwitz, who was expected to be Team USA’s best shot at a medal, lost 10-15 to Hungarian Csanad Gemesi in the Round of 32. Mitchell Saron from the U.S. lost 13-15 to world No. 1 Ziad Elsissy in a close match in the Round of 16. Elsissy will advance to the semifinals.

Sandro Bazadze of Georgia was eliminated in the Round of 16 when he lost 14-15 to Egyptian Mohamed Amer.

Advancing to semifinals:
Fares Ferjani (Tunisia)
Ziad Elsissy (Egypt)
Oh Sang-Uk (South Korea)
Luigi Samele (Italy)

BRACKET

Coverage will continue when the semifinals and bronze/gold medal matches begin at 1 p.m. ET (NBCOlympics.com and Peacock).