Hugo Calderano, one of Brazil’s brightest medal prospects for table tennis at Rio 2016, set down a marker for the competition on Sunday (10 July) by defeating four-time Olympic medallist Wang Liqin of China by three sets to one.

In an intriguing match in Rio de Janeiro, the 20-year-old Brazilian appeared composed and unintimidated during his victory against the 38-year-old veteran Liqin, a three-time world champion in the sport who has won two Olympic gold medals.

The match was part of the Olympic Legends v Brazilian Stars event organised by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) in the Olympic city. With Calderano's victory, the Brazilians completed a 3-1 victory over the legends.

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In front of a sold-out crowd of about 900 people, Calderano took the first set by 11-3. Wang Liqin responded by winning the subsequent set 11-6, before home support lifted Calderano to victories in the next two sets. 

“He is very good, he has potential and a bright future ahead of him,” the Chinese veteran said of his opponent after the match.

Other Olympic legends and current stars of the Brazilian national team who participated in the competition included Belgian Jean-Michel Saive, Jorgen Persson of Sweden and young Brazilians Cazuo Matsumoto and Gustavo Tsuboi.

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"I don't want to limit how far I can go or our team can go,” Tsuboi said after the event in the Botafogo neighbourhood of Rio. "We have to dream with the medal, we need to get to the Olympics thinking about it but above all go as far as we can. In recent competitions we have all shown that we are capable of facing the best players in the world."

“The three of us are very focused and we already proved that we can face the top players of all over the world," Matsumoto said. “We have had great results in the last four years, three players in the top 100; I believe everything is possible, so we made up our minds to go there and make history."

There are still tickets available for the Olympic table tennis events which take place between 6 and 17 August. All matches will be played in Pavilion 3 of Rio Centro in Barra Olympic Park. 

Those with tickets will see the best players in the game sending the little white ball over the net at speeds of almost 125mph. Concentration and technique are the decisive factor in this sport, which has 300 million players, amateur and professional, around the world. According to Brazilian player Matsumoto, 70 per cent of the game is psychological. “Table tennis just entices you, it’s addictive,” he said.