Olympic singles gold is the one accolade missing in the much decorated career of China's Ma Long, the sport's top-ranked player who has claimed World Cup and World Championship titles.

But to win in Rio, he may well be required to snatch the medal from the grasp of defending champion and compatriot Zhang Jike as the era of Chinese dominance in the sport looks set to continue.

The 27-year-old is expected to meet South Korea's top player Jeoung Young-sik in the fourth round, before coming face-to-face with either Chinese Taipei's Chuang Chih-yuan, who beat world No.3 Xu Xin in the Olympic qualifier, or  German veteran Timo Boll.

Four years ago he missed out on a singles spot at London 2012 after failing to do as well as expected at the qualifying rounds.

''There has been lots of difficulties over the past four years but finally I am here,'' he told the Olympic News Service.

Teammate Zhang will have to get past three players that have beaten him at international competitions in the past year to reach the final, including European Champion and world No.5 Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany.

In the women's singles, China-born world No.2 Feng Tianwei of Singapore will probably have to fend off reigning Olympic gold medalist Li Xiaoxia to reach the final, widely predicted to involve hot favorite Ding Ning of China.

Ding, who controversially rowed with the umpire after losing to Li four years ago, told reporters she has been preparing extremely hard and named the Singapore and Japan teams as being among the toughest competition.

In turn, Japan's Ai Fukuhara is full of respect for her.

"Of course on the court she is extremely strong and very cool," she said. "But when you move away from the court she is a very funny lady."