Fan Zhendong is going to take a lot of stopping at the ITTF World Cup in Chengdu ©Getty Images

The big guns fired at the International Table Tennis Federation Men's World Cup, with number one seed Fan Zhendong comfortably into the semi-finals in Chengdu in China. 

All players took part in two matches at the Sichuan Province Gymnasium, with the round-of-16 and quarter-finals on show.

Zhendong cruised past Austria's Daniel Habesohn 11-8, 13-11, 11-7, 11-2, before facing fifth seed Timo Boll in the last eight.

The German battled hard in the final two games, but eventually fell short 11-6, 11-9, 11-5, 7-11, 12-10.

Up next for Zhendong is set to be Lin Yun-ju of Chinese Taipei.

He lost just one game in each of his victories, against Swede Kristian Karlsson and Hugo Calderano of Brazil.

On the other side of the draw, second seed Ma Long of China had a slightly trickier passage to the semi-finals. 

Simon Gauzy of France may have been unfancied as the 12th seed, but he made Long work to the very end, eventually losing 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 8-11, 15-13. 

Long made easier work of the quarter-final, against Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov.

The Olympic and world champin lost the first game, 11-6, but won the next four with relative ease (11-9, 11-4, 13-11, 11-3.

Long will fancy his chances in the semi-final against third seed Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan. 

Harimoto defeated the challenge of Nigerian Quadri Aruna 11-7, 13-11, 12-10, 6-11, 11-6 in the round-of-16 

But he would have been drained by the epic quarter-final against compatriot and eighth seed Koki Niwa. 

All was well for Harimoto, as he took the first two games, 11-6, 11-7.  

However, Niwa stormed back, winning the next three, 12-10, 12-10, 14-12. 

Harimoto required all of his big-match experience to stem the tide, eventually coming through in the last two games, 11-3, 11-8. 

The semi-finals, bronze-medal match and gold-medal match are due to take place tomorrow.