Table tennis ace Melissa Tapper is guaranteed a Paralympic medal in the women's class 9-10 team event after the Australian team secured a spot in the semi-finals with victory over Hungary in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
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The Australians will play for a spot in the gold medal match on Wednesday night at 8.30pm (AEST). If they lose their semi-final they will claim a bronze medal.
Teams play best-of-three matches - one doubles and two singles - to decide the winner of the tie.
Hamilton-raised Tapper (class 10), who is in her third Paralympics, is teammates with recently-crowned singles gold medallists Li Na Lei (class nine) and Qian Yang (class 10).
The Australians won the opening two matches of the tie against Hungary to progress to the last four, for a shot at the gold medal match and with guaranteed bronze.
Lei and Yang, who both won gold in their respective classes on Monday, took on Alexa Szvitacs and Zsofia Arloy in a best-of-five doubles match to kick off the quarter-final.
The Australians won the first game of the match 11-3 in four minutes, the second 11-7 in five minutes and the third 11-3 in four minutes to take the lead in the tie.
Yang played Szvitacs in the second match, which was the first of the singles.
The Australian won the first game of the match 11-6 in five minutes, the second 11-3 in four minutes and sewed up the tie with an 11-3 win in the final game of the match.
Tapper was to play Arloy in the deciding singles match but she was not required due to Yang's victory.
Sean Hardeman
I'm a sports journalist for the Warrnambool Standard who covers a number of different sports across the south-west of Victoria. I enjoy watching cycling, surfing, football, soccer and Formula 1.
I'm a sports journalist for the Warrnambool Standard who covers a number of different sports across the south-west of Victoria. I enjoy watching cycling, surfing, football, soccer and Formula 1.
