South Korea's Shin Yubin, right, and Lim Jonghoon play against Germany's Nina Mittelham and Dang Qiu during a mixed doubles round of 16 table tennis game at the 2024 Summer Olympics, July 27, in Paris. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin advanced to the semifinals of the mixed doubles event in table tennis at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, with a battle against the gold medal favorite from China on the horizon.

The South Korean duo defeated Ovidiu Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs of Romania 4-0 (13-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-8) in the quarterfinals at South Paris Arena 4.

Next up will be the top-ranked duo from China, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, who beat Lin Yun-Ju and Chen Szu-Yu of Chinese Taipei 4-2 (7-11, 11-6, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-3) in the quarterfinals Sunday.

Their semifinal match is scheduled for Monday.

Also on Sunday, Ri Jong-sik and Kim Kum-yong of North Korea reached the semifinals after knocking off Kristian Karlsson and Christina Kallberg of Sweden 4-1 (11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-4, 11-8).

Ri and Kim began their tournament by stunning the No. 2 seed from Japan, Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata, on Saturday. The North Koreans will next face Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong.

The South Korean and North Korean teams could either square off in the gold medal match or the bronze medal match. (Yonhap)