Day 1 Recap: Lay and Powell through to the second round as Hu and Tapper make history in Mixed Doubles event

It was an action-packed first day for the Australian table tennis team as most of our athletes got their Olympic campaign underway at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Six-time Olympian Jian Fang Lay was first up in the morning, as the only Australian player drawn into the Women’s Singles preliminary round. Lay went off to a convincing start winning her first match 4-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-5, 14-12) against Daniela Fonseca of Cuba. She then went on to defeat Italian Debora Vivarelli 4-1 (11-7, 5-11, 11-4, 12-10, 11-2) later in the day to earn a spot in the second round of the tournament. 

Despite not having missed an edition of the Games since Sydney 2000, Lay said experience did not make her immune to the emotions of the first day on the Olympic stage.

“I was a bit nervous at the beginning, but by the second game the tension started to come down a little bit. 

“It’s just amazing to be here at my sixth Olympics and I am going to try and enjoy it as much as I can. It’s fantastic and I have to thank my family for all their support that allowed me to be here,” Lay said.

In the other Women’s Singles match, Michelle Bromley played her maiden Olympic match against Natalia Partyka (POL). It was a tough match-up for Bromley, who went down in straight sets to the Polish (3-11, 5-11, 5-11, 7-11). Bromley said the lack of international competition in the last couple of years made facing such a strong opponent even more challenging.

“Obviously not the result I wanted, but playing Natalia was always going to be tough, given that she’s a top-100 player and she’s used to having high-quality matches week in and week out in Europe. 

“Unfortunately I didn’t bring out my best table tennis, but I was still happy to be competing and giving it my all for Australia.

“It was also really nice to get out on the court and know that all my family and friends were watching back home. After the match they told me how proud they were after seeing me play on the biggest table tennis stage in the world,” she said.

In the Men’s Singles first round Chris Yan faced no. 47 seed Ovidiu Ionescu of Romania. Ionescu started strong and took the first two two tightly contested games before Yan pushed back in the third. The Australian managed to win the game 11-7, but the Romanian held on to his lead and eventually closed the game 4-1 (11-7, 13-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6) in 34’.

The second Australian man in the draw, David Powell, went straight through to the second round of the Men’s Singles as his opponent Pavel Sirucek (CZE) recorded a ‘Did Not Start’ (DNS).

Earlier in the day, Melissa Tapper and Heming Hu became the first Australian table tennis players to play a Mixed Doubles match at the Olympic Games, as the event made its debut on the program in Tokyo. Matched up against no. 8 seed France in the round of 16, the Australian team put up a fight early on, but were eventually outplayed by France who won in straight games (5-11, 9-11, 1-11, 0-11).

“France are a top quality pair, even though losing is always disappointing,” Hu said after the match. “We really needed that second game to put some pressure back on them, but playing with Milly again on this stage was so much fun.” 

“I remember playing our first international major event together at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and that was an absolute blast,” Tapper said. 

“It’s awesome to be able to do it again and be part of the history of the Games, by being the first ones to do it [play Mixed Doubles for Australia at the Olympics]. Hopefully we'll continue to compete internationally together and get some good results,” she said.

Jian Fang Lay and David Powell will be back in action on Monday, when Lay will face no. 28 seed Qian Li (POL) while Powell will begin his campaign in earnest challenging Slovakian Yang Wang for a place in the third round. 
 

📷 | ITTF