Wang Nan - China's Queen of ping pong - is set to become a hero in her home country should she win both the singles and doubles in Sydney. Table tennis is the national sport of China, and Wang, the pony-tailed left hander, is seeded number one in both events - the latter in partnership with Li Ju, who also has the weight of national expectations on her shoulders.

China dominates the women's game to such an extent that Wang's major Olympic rivals, the seeds from two to eight, are all China-born except for South Korea's fifth seed Ryu Ji Hye. China have won every Olympic women's singles title since the first in 1988 and have only lost one doubles title, when South Korea's Hyun Jung-Hwa and Yang Young-Ja claimed gold in 1988.