Men's No.1 Ma Long of China was handed a potentially tough route to the final when the draw for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games table tennis competition was made on Wednesday (3 August) in the Olympic city. An Olympic singles gold medal is the only major honour the 27-year-old has not won.

Ma is likely to face Republic of Korea’s top-ranked player Jeoung Youngsik in the fourth round, then one of the two most experienced medal hopes in Timo Boll of Germany or Chuang Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei to book a probable semifinal with Japanese No.4 seed Jun Mizutani.

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Ma's opponent in the final is likely to be either his countryman and London 2012 Olympic Games gold medallist Zhang Jike or Europe’s best player Dimitrij Ovtcharov from Germany.

Chinese domination

Ahead of the draw, Ovtcharov spoke of what a non-Chinese player winning gold would mean for table tennis. "I think it would improve the confidence of the rest of the world," he said. "The Chinese have been very consistent, since 2004 they've taken all the huge titles."

In the women’s singles, second seed Feng Tianwei of Singapore was also given a tough draw ahead of her bid to claim a first-ever Olympic gold medal for Singapore.

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Feng's half of the draw includes Japanese star Ai Fukuhara of Japan and London 2012 Olympic Games champion Li Xiaoxia of China, on course to a likely showdown with gold medal favourite Ding Ning, also from China.

In the men’s team event, the German team, considered to pose the biggest threat to China, will have to overcome Chinese Taipei and then one of Portugal or Austria to book a semi-final with Japan.

In the women’s team event, groans echoed around Riocentro Pavilion 4 when host nation Brazil drew China in the first round.

If China are not put off by a pro-Brazilian crowd, they have an easy-looking run to a likely final with Japan.

Ding, recently beaten by 15-year-old Japanese prodigy Mima Ito, identified the teenager as the missing piece in an already strong Japanese team.

Teenage prodigy Mima Ito of Japan will be a strong contender for a medal at Rio 2016 (Photo: Getty Images/Robertus Pudyanto)

"In the last several team finals, China have been meeting with (Japan)," she said.

"This time they have a new player who is at a really young age, Mima Ito, so in total the three of them as a team are pretty strong."