Reigning Olympic champion Li Xiaoxia (CHN) hadn’t dropped a game during her march to the quarterfinals. So why start now?
Li defeated Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei in four games Tuesday morning in the opening match of the round of eight at the Riocentro.
Li opened with a signal of intent, taking the first five points of the match en route to an 11-5 win in the first game. She would win the second by the same score, going on a 6-0 run to break a 5-5 tie.
She would continue that run to take a 3-0 lead in the third game before trading the next twelve points with Cheng. But at 9-6, Li would take the next two to take a commanding three games to none lead.
Li hardly slowed down in game 4, winning 11-6 to advance to the semifinals Wednesday. There, she’ll face the winner of the 10:00 AM ET quarterfinal between Japan’s Ai Fukuhara and Singapore’s Feng Tianwei.
All the quarterfinal action streams live today on NBCOlympics.com.