The 2012 gold medalist Li Xiaoxia faced off against sixth seed Ai Fukuhara for a spot in the gold medal match. In their previous 10 meetings, the Japanese had only topped the Chinese on one occasion and it was set to be an uphill task for her. However, after her confidence-boosting defeat of second seed Feng Tianwei in the quarterfinals, the Japanese would be looking to try and get something from this.
However, it was an almost one-sided battle from start to finish. Li was ruthless with her shots and Fukuhara had no answer to the power and pace of the Chinese. The third seed dispatched the Japanese in just 24 minutes winning 11-4, 11-3, 11-1, 11-1 to progress to her second consecutive final at the Olympics in the women's singles event.
Fukuhara has no time to react
It was a one-sided opening game with Li immediately racing away with the lead. Fukuhara simply had no answer and was struggling to form any kind of rhythm as Li surged to a staggering 9-1 lead. The Japanese stopped the rot eventually winning both points on her serve before Li set up game points at 10-3. The Chinese eventually closed out the game 11-4 in double quick time.
Fukuhara tries hard but Li just too good
This time the Japanese kept pace to level 2-2. Even though Fukuhara tried to change up directions, Li was quick to recover. And soon the Chinese broke away running with the game yet again for an 8-2 lead. Li’s angled balls hit with venom were causing the Japanese all sorts of problem. Fukuhara won just one point on serve as Li wrapped up the game 11-3
Li races towards the finish line
Not only was Li aggressive and good with her attacks, she was able to defend well too. As the third seed took a 4-1 lead, Fukuhara had a timeout. That did not serve to aid the Japanese though as errors started creeping into Fukuhara’s game. Even though she tried being the aggressor, she wasn’t able to pull it off and soon Li had nine game points. The third seed required just one though as she took a huge step towards advancing to the gold medal match.
Li wraps up victory in quick fashion
Fukuhara was giving it her all but Li remained solid and quickly climbed to an 8-0 lead. Fukuhara eventually got on to the scoreboard to the delight of the crowd but that would be the only point she would win as Li sealed the game 11-1 and stormed to the finals to defend her gold medal from 2012.