Winner: Zhang Yining [Xinhua]

Table tennis women's top seed, world No.1 Chinese Zhang Yining defeats Chinese-born Singaporean Li Jiawei in the women's single semifinal with a 4-1 performance held on August 22 in PKU Gymnasium at the Beijing Olympics.

Zhang won 9-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-8 and 11-5. The victory secured a singles gold for China as the world number one will play with the winner of the other semifinal match, Grand Slam veteran Wang Nan.

"I think Li fought really hard today. She has participated in three Olympic Games, so she is actually more experienced than me in international competitions," said Zhang.

"But I knew I would win once I got over the first game," she said. "The final won't be easy because teammates know each other very well."

Li said that "I played very well today and it's an achievement for me to finish in the top four while the other three are all Chinese players."

Both Zhang and Li were born in Beijing in 1981. They attended the same school in the Chinese capital between 1986-96.

But Li went to Singapore in 1996 under Singapore Table Tennis Association's foreign recruitment scheme, and gained Singaporean citizenship in 1999.