Li took just 56 minutes to dispose of Indonesia's Sandy Gumulya 6-1 6-3 despite her left ankle needing heavy strapping during the match.

Li, who made history at Wimbledon this year when she became the first Chinese woman to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam, said she strained it during an earlier match, but it would not hurt her performance here.

"It's not bothering me," she said.

The world number 21 meets Uzbekistan's Iroda Tulyaganova in the quarters, but said her major threat to winning gold came from teammate Zheng Jie.

"I'm taking one game at a time rather than thinking about the final but China is my main competition," she said.

Zheng, a doubles Grand Slam winner, also moved into the final eight after India's number two Shikha Uberoi retired hurt.