Japan's Ai Fukuhara, smiling, stands besides Zhang Yining of China after  the Olympic women's singles table tennis competition, August 21, 2008. [Xinhua]

Fukuhara said that she was not sad about being drawn against the defending champion so early in the competition, which denied her the chance to improve her personal best at the Olympic Games.

She failed to reach the last 8 at the Athens singles competition fours years ago.

"I wasn't nervous today. I feel fortunate to play the world's best player and I think I found the trick to playing at the Olympic Games," she said.

Fukuhara and her teammates burst into tears after they lost to South Korea in the team bronze contest last week.

"We really wanted to win the bronze medal because we have never won an Olympic medal for Japan and it is the last Games for our coach," Fukuhara said.

Japan, which has never won an Olympic table tennis medal since the sport was introduced at the 1988 Seoul Games, finished third three times at the biennial world team championships between 2004-2008.

Japan's other two women players, Fukuoka Haruna and Sayaka Hirano, were both eliminated in the 1/16 round late Wednesday.