China continued to dominate at the world championships as three players from the mainland team marched into today's men's singles semi-finals.
World number one Ma Lin had little difficulty routing Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus 4-1 in the quarters yesterday, as he extended his unbeaten head-to-head record to six wins over one of the best European players.
Ma will now meet compatriot Wang Hao after the latter was hardly made to sweat in a 4-0 victory over Hyuk Joo-se of South Korea.
'The men's singles title is the one we expected the greatest difficulties in before we came to Zagreb,' said China men's team coach Liu Guoliang.
In the other semi-final, Wang Liqin, the defending champion from China, will face Min Ryu-seung of South Korea.
Min, the Athens gold medallist, pulled off a surprise 4-0 victory over Timo Boll of Germany, who won all three titles at the European championship before arriving in Zagreb.