World No. 8 Ai Fukuhara produced an upset when she beat second seed Feng Tianwei of Singapore on Tuesday to make the Olympic table tennis semifinals for the first time at the Rio Games.
The 27-year-old Japanese "veteran", who got her name known more a decade ago, pushed Feng to 12-all in the first set on an 11-point format before she scored two points in a row to wrap it up 14-12 and never looked back.
With the straight-set victory, Fukuhara kept her nation's hope of a women's singles medal alive in table tennis after Japan's top player Kasumi Ishikawa crashed out in her opening match against DPR Korea's Kim Song I in Sunday's third round.
Fukuhara, whose best result in her previous three Olympic Games was the quarterfinal finish in London 2012, will play the sport's Grand Slam winner and defending champion Li Xiaoxia of China in her last four encounters on Wednesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the 28-year-old Li proved too strong for Chinese Taipei's seventh seed Cheng I-Ching in another quarterfinal clash, ousting the world No. 10 4-0.
