Lay continues to make history in Tokyo, matching best Australian result in Women’s Singles at the Games

Jian Fang Lay continued to make Olympic history today, as she qualified for the third round of the Women’s Singles table tennis tournament at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, while David Powell’s Olympic campaign was halted by Slovakian Wang in the second round. 

Six-time Olympian Lay defeated no. 28 seed Qian Li (POL) in six games at the end of a tense 52-minute match (11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 10-12, 11-4, 11-4).

By reaching the third round of the Women’s Singles, Lay matched her best Olympic result obtained in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, which is also the best result ever for an Australian in Women’s Singles at the Olympic Games.

Lay was off to a good start and showed remarkable composure as she won the first two games against the 2018 European Champion. The Polish - who is also a top-50 world ranked player - managed to shift the momentum and brought back the third game, before denying Lay a game point on 9-10 in the fourth and restoring parity at two games all.

The Australian started off the crucial fifth game with a 6-2 run and never looked back, wrapping up the match 4-2 and qualifying through to the next round, where she will face no. 12 seed Ying Han of Germany. 

After the match, an elated Lay said that Australian head coach John Murphy’s advice was really helpful as she tried to resist Li’s comeback in the fifth game.

“The coach kept saying ‘more patience, more patience!’ 

“It just feels amazing. She is a European champion, so I am so happy to have won,” Lay said. 

Murphy said the German player whom Lay is facing in the next round plays a similar style to Li, and the win is a big confidence booster.

“But so far Jian has been taking it one point at a time, let alone one game at a time, so we’ll enjoy this one for now and hopefully get her back in good shape for the next round,” he said.

In the Men’s Singles, David Powell made his second Olympic debut after advancing directly to the second round. Despite a valiant effort, Powell could not match no.24 seed Yang Wang of Slovakia and had to concede defeat in straight sets (4-11, 4-11, 3-11, 3-11).

“It wasn’t the result that I was after, obviously,'' Powell said. 

“It was a very tough match. As far as his style of play, he’s probably one of the best defenders in the world and unfortunately we don’t get to practice enough against that particular style. In the end he was just too good and today wasn’t my day.

“But it was great to get some feeling out there on the court. Now we have to rebuild and refocus for our team's match against Japan on Sunday night. 

“It’s a great honour to be a two-time Olympian. Making Rio was a dream come true already. I’ve been working full time for the past five or six years, so of course that made training more difficult, but I am stoked to be here,” he said.

Jian Fang Lay is the only Australian player left in the Tokyo 2020 table tennis Singles draw and will be back on court tomorrow Tuesday for her third-round match against Han.