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Gold medal favourites Ding, Li into quarters

Dunya News

China is on track for a sweep of two gold medals in table tennis singles.

Favorites Ding Ning and Li Xiaoxia of China reached the quarterfinals of womens singles on Monday.Top-seeded and defending world champion Ding defeated Jiang Huajun of Hong Kong 4-1 on Monday, and No. 2 Li had an easy 4-1 victory against Park Mi-young of South Korea.The Chinese men also moved on easily with the top two going through to the fourth round. Play in the fourth round was set for later Monday, which will set the mens quarterfinals.Top-seeded Zhang Jike defeated Bora Vang of Turkey 4-0, and No. 2 Wang Hao won 4-1 against Werner Schlager of Austria.Chinas 1.3 billion people are all expecting four gold medals in what is Chinas national pastime. So far, so good with the finals coming Wednesday and Thursday.The 22-year-old Ding could be a new star, following three famous Chinese women who each won four gold medals.Zhang Yining won four gold medals in the last two Olympics. Wang Nan won hers in three Olympics 2000, 2004, 2008. And Deng Yaping started the string with four in 1992 and 1996.Ding is the new generation of Chinese athletes. She likes to talk, smiles and laughs easily and even lets reporters test a few words of Mandarin. She does the same in English.And she seems frank.