Lin Gaoyuan spoiled his teammate Fan Zhendong's fourth consecutive trophy hope at the ITTF World Cup by beating him 4-2 here on Friday, as six paddlers from Team China moved into the last four.
A total of seven players from Team China had entered the quarterfinals.
In the most highly-anticipated match of the day, Fan, who registered the World Cup champion in 2018, 2019 and 2020, fought back twice to play out a 2-2 tie against Lin.
Fan opened the fifth game with a 7-0 lead, but the world No.2 squandered the huge advantage, only to see Lin erased the deficit to restore a 3-2 lead, before he rode the momentum to seal the win with another 11-7.
"I played widely open today as I have no burden against Fan. I trailed a lot in the fifth game, but I just focused on keeping my pace and narrowing the gap point by point," Lin said.
Fan had called a medical time out during the play, but he disclosed it was nothing serious and Lin did do better on some key points.
"The two opponents at the knockout stage are very tough, I think I performed better than yesterday, but Lin was calmer when dealing with some key points especially in the fifth game, so I congratulate him," Fan noted.
Early on Friday, veteran Ma Long eliminated Shunsuke Togami 4-2, setting up a semifinal showdown with world No.1 Wang Chuqin, who saw off Jang Woo-jin of South Korea 4-1.
On women's part, all three Chinese players Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu had relatively comfortable victories on Friday.
Defending champion Chen and Sun will have a head-to-head showdown, while Wang takes up Miwa Harimoto of Japan.
Rape, terror and death at sea: How a boat carrying Rohingya children, women and men capsized
Local brands expand overseas production
Egypt on alert for possible gas ship leakage in Gulf of Aqaba: ministry
Interview: Expert says U.S. interest rate hikes causing ripple effects in developing countries
South Africa sees over 1 mln travelers during Easter holiday
Tanzania to host field training for over 600 senior police officers from 14 African countries
Israel lifts all precautionary restrictions after Iranian attack: army
Xi stresses development of new productive forces, high