World No. 1 Ding Ning to fight for final berth against Asian champion Hirano

DUSSELDORF, Germany, June 2 (Xinhua) -- World No. 1 and defending champion Ding Ning will meet Japanese sensation Miu Hirano in the women's singles semifinals of the World Table Tennis Championships.

Ding, also the Olympic champion in Rio, beat another Japanese player, sixth-ranked Ishikawa Kasumi, 4-0 while Hirano trounced world No. 4 Feng Tianwei of Singapore 4-0 (11-5, 11-2, 18-16, 11-5).

The other two quarterfinal matches were both all-Chinese affairs, with world No. 3 Zhu Yuling beating fifth seed Chen Meng 4-2 and second seed Liu Shiwen defeating qualifier Mu Zi 4-1.

Zhu and Liu will meet in the semifinals.