NBC Olympics.com – With the women's singles gold medal handed out Wednesday evening, all eyes now turn to the men's semifinals, which begin Thursday morning at 9:00 AM ET.
Top-seeded Ma Long (CHN) kicks off the action from the Riocentro as he squares off against Jun Mizutani (JPN). Ma has only dropped two games in Rio thus far, both in his fourth round match against Jung Young-Sik when he came back from an 0-2 hole to win 4-2. Mizutani, who was bounced in the fourth round in London, hasn't had the most dominating Olympics; he dropped a game to 19 seed Panagiotis Gionis, and two apiece to #36 Hugo Calderano and #8 Marcos Freitas.
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In the other semifinal, reigning champion Zhang Jike is a heavy favorite against Belarus's Vladimir Samsonov. Zhang, the two seed in Rio, has only lost one set on his path to the semifinals. Samsonov, on the other hand, has lost six, including two in his marathon quarterfinal against London bronze medalist Dimitrij Ovtcharov.
The action begins at 9:00 AM ET from the Riocentro with the semifinals, and continues at 7:30 PM ET with the bronze medal match. You can catch all the table tennis streaming live on NBCOlympics.com.