News – Table tennis Australia

Published Mon July 26, 2021

Jian Fang Lay continued his Olympic history today as he reached the third round of the women’s singles table tennis tournament at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, while Wang from Slovakia suspended David Powell’s Olympic campaign in the second round.

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

Lay achieved her best Olympic result in the third round of the women’s singles, which was achieved in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, which is also Australia’s all-time best result in the women’s singles at the Olympics.

Lay had a good start and showed considerable satisfaction when he won the first two games against the 2018 European Champion. The Pole – who is also in the top 50 in the world – managed to change the pace and brought in a third game before denying Lay a 9-10 point in the fourth and restoring parity in two matches.

The Australian started an important fifth game in a 6-2 run and never looked back, wrapping the match 4-2 and qualifying for the next round where he won’t come. 12 seeds of Ying Han from Germany.

After the match, the passionate Lay said the advice from Australian head coach John Murphy was really helpful as he tried to oppose Li’s return in the fifth match.

“Coach continued” more patience, more patience! ”

“It just feels amazing. He’s the European champion, so I’m so happy to win,” Lay said.

Murphy said the German player Lay is facing in the next round is playing in a similar style to Li, and the win is a big boost for self-confidence.

“But so far, Jian has taken it one point at a time, not to mention one game at a time, so we’ll enjoy this so far and hopefully get him back in good shape for the next round,” he said.

In the men’s singles, David Powell made his second Olympic debut after advancing straight to the second round. Despite a bold effort, Powell was unable to match 24-seed Slovak Yang Wang and had to concede defeat in the straight series (4-11, 4-11, 3-11, 3-11).

“Apparently that wasn’t the result I was following,” Powell said.

“It was a very tough match. In terms of his style of play, he is probably one of the best defenders in the world, and unfortunately we are not allowed to practice enough against that style. After all, he was way too good and today was not my day.

“But it was great to have some sort of feeling out on the field. Now we have to rebuild and focus our team on the match against Japan on Sunday night.

“It’s a great honor to be a double olympic. Doing Rio was already a dream. I’ve been working full time for the last five or six years, so of course it made training difficult, but I’m eager to be here,” he said.

Jian Fang Lay is the only Australian player left in the Tokyo 2020 table tennis duel and will return tomorrow Tuesday in his third-round match against Chania.

GALLERY