OLYMPIC MEDIA NOTES, 24TH JULY 2021 Spare a thought for Wang Chen, better known as Eugene Wang; at the North American Qualification tournament he won the men’s singles beating Jeremy Hazin in the final. However, now 35 years old, he decided to forgo the place and give it to the younger player, Jeremy Hazin, 21 year of age; one thought was that in partnering Zhang Mo, they had a good chance of reaching the latter stage. In the opening round they drew Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen! Melanie Diaz plays Orawan Paranang in the opening round of the women’s singles. It will be the first time that three members of the same family have competed in the table tennis events at an Olympic Games. Younger sister Adriana is present in Tokyo as is their cousin Brian Afanador. Fathers Bladimir Diaz and Elio Afanador are brothers. At last, for Jessica Yamada, now 31 years old. In 2012 the Latin American Championships and Latin American Olympic Qualification Tournament were played in succession. Jessica won the women’s singles title at the Latin American Championships but did not gain a place in the Qualification tournament, Ligia Silva and Caroline Kumahara emerged the successful players. Gui Lin who one month earlier had gained Brazilian nationality was preferred. Jessica was distraught, she did not watch the London 2012 Olympic Games. She decided to leave the national team and play for clubs in France and Sweden, so she was not considered for Rio 2016. In 2018 she returned to the team (read pages 46-49 https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/65470918/swaythling-april-2021) Jessica Yamada plays Rachel Moret in women’s singles round one; Jessica plays with a very slow tempo, she could well upset Rachel Moret. Chelsea Edghill plays Sally Yee in the preliminary round; a first appearance for Guyana in the table tennis events at an Olympic Games. Anastassiya Lavrova becomes the third player to represent Kazakhstan, the world’s largest landlocked country in the table tennis events at an Olympic Games. In 2008 in Beijing, Marine Shumakova was on women’s, in Rio de Janeiro, Kirill Gerassimenko competed in the men’s singles; like Anastassiya Lavrova he is listed on the Tokyo entry list. Mongolia the most sparsely populated nation in the world, makes its debut in the table tennis events at an Olympic Games. Lkhagrasuren Enkhbat and Bolor-Erdene Batmunkh compete in the respective men’s singles and women’s singles events. Alberto Miño becomes the first player from Ecuador to compete in the men’s singles event at an Olympic Games. Technically his forehand is not strong, he excels from the backhand but of all the players on duty in Japan, he is the strongest mentally; at 10-all back Alberto. | Kou Lei has the most fluent forehand, but he needs Miño’s head! Ovidiu Ionescu/Bernadette Szocs v Lubomir Pistej/Barbora Balazova is the pick of the first-round mixed doubles matches. Both pairs have good results but a lack of consistency. Lubomir Pistej/Barbora Balazova the safer pair, no good recent result for Szocs but Ionescu is a fighter, a motivator. Page 1 Kirill Skachkov and Dimitrije Levajac have never met, Skachkov should win but at tin January 2020 at the World Team Qualification tournament in Gondomar Levajac was Serbia’s star. He lost just one match, more important he always played in that math when scores were level at 2-2; against Austria he beat Stefan Fegerl, facing Hong Kong, Wong Chun Ting. Paul Drinkhall versus Nima Alamian; Paul Drinkhall has a debt to settle, he lost to Alamian at the 2019 Qatar Open. Linda Bergström is in form, her defensive play should prove too strong for the combination bat play of Sutirtha Mukherjee; Bergström reached quarters at recent European Championships. Christina (always Stina) Källberg will be looking for a repeat performance. She beat Shao Jieni in the opening round at the recent Liebherr 2020 European Championships in Warsaw. Theoretically Prithika Pavade should be on duty at the European Youth Championships. At the recent Liebherr 2020 European Championships in Warsaw, she was beaten in round two by Elizabeta Samara. She has never played Yana Noskova but the close to the table attacking style of the Russian could well suit the French teenager who will be 17 years old on 2nd August. Competing in his fifth Olympic Games, Panagiotis Gionis, a qualified dentist and now 41 years of age faces a tough men’s singles opener. He confronts Zsolt Peto. At the Liebherr 2018 World Team Championships in Halmstad, Zsolt Peto beat Panagiotis Gionis. The style of Peto being a left hander, good feeling for the ball, the natural cross court forehand top spin towards to backhand of the defensive play used by Gionis caused the Greek problem. Very difficult for him to unleash his powerful forehand. Page 2 .