If it weren't for the different flags sewn on the athletes' uniforms, some early-round table tennis matches at the Paris Olympics could have been mistaken for a national championship in China.

The women's singles match between China's 23-year-old Sun Yingsha, the top seed and world No 1, and Luxembourg's Ni Xialian, 61, left the crowd marveling at the huge age gap between the two players.

Both athletes speak Mandarin and were born in China, and developed their table tennis skills under the Chinese training system, which has seen the country dominate the sport.

Despite a straight-sets loss to Sun in the round of 32 on July 31, Ni etched her name in table tennis history. She is the first woman to have competed in table tennis at six Olympic Games and the oldest to win a match after she defeated Sibel Altinkaya of Turkiye in the opening round on July 27.

An hour after that match, another showdown between two Chinese-born athletes sent the crowd at the South Paris Arena into a frenzy. Veteran Yuan Jianan, representing the host nation France, outplayed Zhang Mo of Canada to advance to the round of 16.

Three days earlier, Portugal's three-time Olympian Fu Yu delivered a major upset by defeating the 9th seed Jeon Ji-hee of South Korea in straight sets. Despite playing under different flags, fans in China rooted for the two "foreign" athletes, who were both born in Hebei province.