Women's teams
The Indian team's maiden Olympic voyage has disembarked.
The Indian women's team fell to Germany in its quarterfinal match, 3-1. Germany started with a 2-0 lead over the No. 11 seed, before Archana Girish Kamath beat Xiaona Shan to push a fourth match. Annett Kaufmann put India's hopes to bed, when the world-ranked No. 100 defeated world No. 25 Sreeka Akula, 3-0. The Indian women's loss comes after its men's team fell to China in the Round of 16.
Germany moves into the semifinals, where it will face the second-seeded Japanese team.
“Before we came here, our No. 1 was injured so, of course, we were already a little bit down," Kaumann said after the match. "Then, when we came here, our No.2 also got injured, so it wasn't really easy for us to be mentally good again, and to fight even though we don't have the two best players on our team. But that makes me even more proud of us that we could manage to win."
The Chinese women's team only needed three matches to dismiss the No. 3 seed of South Korea.
"I think the doubles match, I worked well with Chen Meng and it went pretty smoothly for us," Chinese team member Weng Menu said of the victory. "In the singles, there were some really great points between the two of us. My opponent played a good match today. It’s good that we were given a bit of a test today. It will bode well for our ties to come."
Men's teams
The Chinese men's team rolled into the semifinals in elite fashion, after besting No. 5 seed South Korea, 3-0. Ma Long teamed up with Wang Chuqin to win the opening doubles match, and praised Wang's skills after the triumph.
"Wang Chuqin had a good hit rate today. I told him he's doing well, so he didn't have to rush things even when it's not always going well in the games," said Ma.
China will play host country France in the semifinal.
France clinched its semifinal seat after taking down the No. 5 seed Brazil. The third seeded French team led by the brothers Lebrun delivered a straight-match loss to Brazil. 17-year-old Felix Lebrun topped Brazil's Hugo Calderano for the second time in four days, after he overcame the veteran Brazilian in the men's singles bronze medal final.
"Every time we play China, it's normally in their country or in Asia, so every time there are many fans for them, but this time will be a little bit different," said Felix Lebrun.
"I think it's a great boost and also not easy for them every time they lose a point to hear a big sound in the audience. Maybe it can be a bit different," he added.
The final match of the night was an electric upset when Sweden fought back from a two-match deficit to beat fourth-seeded Japan in a men's team table tennis semifinal.