China's teams march into finals with eyes on a gold-medal sweep

China's men and women reached the table tennis team finals at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, with their sights set on winning the last two gold medals to complete a sweep of the five on offer at the Games.

China's women easily overcame South Korea in a one-sided match, with Korea surprisingly not using their best singles player, Shin Yu-bin, in the first singles match at South Paris Arena.

World No 1 Sun Yingsha dominated Lee Eun-hye, winning three straightforward games and allowing her opponent to score only nine points in total. This was followed by another win from Wang Manyu, who defeated Jeon Ji-hee and limited her to just three points in the final game.

"No matter what order they play in, it's the same for us," said Chen.

Earlier in the day, China's men's met a bit more resistance, beating hosts France with a 3-0 score that belied the close nature of the matches that captivated a packed stadium of French and Chinese fans.

From the start, French duo Alexis Lebrun and Simon Gauzy put pressure on China's top players Ma Long and Wang Chuqin and got to an 11-11 tie, but the Chinese seized match point and took the game 13-11 and then the match 3-0 to reach the final against Sweden.

Lebrun's 17-year-old brother Felix, who had lost 4-0 to Fan Zhendong in the men's singles semifinals, managed to switch things up when the two met again and play a better game. He kept it tied until 11-11 in the second game and took the third game 11-8.

In the fourth game, Felix delayed his opponent's victory as much as possible with some incredible saves, earning loud cheers. Eventually, Fan won 16-14, far beyond the usual 11 points required to win a game.

"I think today was our best performance. We lost 3-0 but we all played great today, so I hope we can play even better tomorrow," said Felix, whose team will face Japan in the bronze-medal match on Friday.

Alexis, 20, also played an impressive match against world No 1 Wang Chuqin, involving many spectacular lobs. He won multiple points by disrupting Wang's rhythm and forcing errors, taking the first game 11-7.

Wang then regained his footing and took three games in a row, limiting Alexis to just one point in the last game.

"His lobs were quite threatening and I became a bit anxious, worried that he might switch to an offensive play," said Wang. "I lost some patience but as the match went on, I gradually became more comfortable with those high balls, so I started to get a better feel for the flow of the game.".

Despite table tennis not being a top sport in the country, Thursday's men's match was widely broadcast on French television and streaming services. The French players are not only gaining more fans at home but are also earning praise and causing concern among the Chinese team.

"They're already one of our strongest opponents, especially judging from their performance in this match. Whether it's Simon or the Lebrun brothers, they are all relatively young, making them one of the best teams in the world," said China's Ma, one of the most decorated players in the sport.

Germany and Japan were playing in the second women's semifinal later on Thursday.