Germany's 14th seed came through the preliminary group stage yesterday and now stands within one win of securing a memorable medal in Chinese city Weihai.

Han defeated Austria’s Sofia Polcanova 11-7, 9-11, 5-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 before toppling fourth seed Cheng I-Ching of Chinese Taipei 12-10, 3-11, 7-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-6.

The 37-year-old is the last European player left in the draw as she prepares to face world number one Chen Meng of China.

One of the day's other biggest storylines was Lily Zhang of the United States gaining revenge over Singaporean player Feng Tianwei.

Zhang missed out on a podium place at last year’s event to Feng, but came out on top on this occasion, winning 11-7, 11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 8-11, 13-11 in the last 16.

Her campaign drew to a close later in the day, however, as she came unstuck against Chen, who won 11-8, 11-6, 11-3, 11-9 to advance to the semi-finals.

"During the match there were a lot of ups and downs and I thought it was important that I was able to adjust during the match," Chen said.

"Lily's improvement has been huge. 

"She made it all the way to the semi-finals last year.

"I had to prepare for her as well as all other opponents as they are all very good players."

Chen’s compatriot Sun Yingsha also made it through to the last four after seeing off Puerto Rican Adriana Díaz 11-5, 11-5, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7 and Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan 11-6, 11-4, 11-4, 11-7.

Second seed Mima Ito will be Sun’s next opponent after the Japanese player defeated Chen Szu-yu of Chinese-Taipei 11-6, 11-6, 11-7, 6-11, 11-5 in the quarter-finals.

The event in China is the ITTF’s first following an eight-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It is set to conclude tomorrow.