Table Tennis 2020 Tokyo Olympic Review

Men’s Singles

In the first quarter, Fan Zhendong (China) cruised through relatively comfortably, only dropping a set. That came against Marcos Freitas (Portugal), whilst Jeoung Young-sik (South Korea) did upset Timo Boll (Germany) in that section. Tomokazu Harimoto (Japan) was knocked out by Darko Jorgic (Slovenia), who also beat Liam Pitchford (Great Britain). Jorgic went out in the quarter-final to Lin Yun-ju (Taiwan). Hugo Calderano (Brazil), the fourth seed, came up against Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Germany) in the quarter-final. Calderano went two sets up, only for Ovtcharov to win four straight. In the bottom quarter, Ma Long (China) came through, dropping a set in each game though. Both of the semi-finals went to seven sets. Zhendong edged the final set against Yun-ju, despite the pair winning the exact same amount of points throughout the match. Ovtcharov came from 2-0 down before getting back to 2-2, but could only lose the final set 11-9. Ovtcharov was behind twice but came back, winning the final set 11-7. Ma Long opened the final with an 11-4 and relatively dominated, beating Zhendong 4-2.

🥇Ma Long 🇨🇳

🥈Fan Zhendong 🇨🇳

🥉Dimitrij Ovtcharov 🇩🇪

Men’s Team

The entire first round went according to the seeding. Brazil were pushed the hardest, only beating Serbia 3-2. China opened the quarter-finals, taking a 3-0 victory over France. South Korea followed suit, doing the same defeating Brazil. Sweden took the second match off Japan, with Mattias Falck beating Jan Mizutani, but Japan still won 3-1. Lin Yun Ju won two games for Taiwan, but it was not enough to beat Germany. China took their semi-final 3-0 against South Korea. Germany took the lead with a fifth-set victory over Japan in the doubles, only for Ovtcharov to lose to Tomakazu Harimoto. Timo Boll beat Jan Mizutani before Harimoto took another singles game. In the final matchup, Ovtcharov beat Kowi Niwa in straight sets. In the bronze medal matchup, Japan went 2-0 up, only for Niwa to lose in the third match. They sealed success when Mizutani would win the fourth. In the final China won 3-0, with only Ovtcharov able to take his game to a fifth set.

🥇China 🇨🇳

🥈Germany 🇩🇪

🥉Japan 🇯🇵

Women’s Singles

The top quarter went according to seedings, as Chen Meng (China) beat Doo Hoi Kem (Hong Kong), but only after going two sets down. Cheng I-ching (Taiwan) was defeated by Yu Mengyu (Singapore) in the third round, and Mengyu went on to win the quarter, also beating Kasumi Ishikawa (Japan). Japanese favourite Mima Ito (Japan) came through impressively, only losing a set on the way to the semi-final. Even better was Sun Yingsha (China), the only woman through to the semi-final without dropping a set. Meng took a straight sets victory to make the final and Yingsha bettered it, allowing her opponent even fewer points. Ito lost the first set in the third place playoff but won four straight to take the bronze. After losing the first set, Meng controlled the rest of the final taking the win four sets to two.

🥇Chen Meng 🇨🇳

🥈Sun Yingsha 🇨🇳

🥉Mima Ito 🇯🇵

Women’s Team

Again, the opening round went exactly to seed. Only Brazil were able to win a game against a seed, losing 3-1 to Hong Kong. Hong Kong lost the first game of their quarter final against Romania but went on to win 3-1 again. Japan beat Taiwan 3-0, only losing a set of the ten played. China won 3-0 as well, but game of the round saw Germany win 3-2. Germany were 2-1 down but managed to win the last two singles matches to get through. Japan took the semi final victory over Hong Kong with a 3-0 win and were joined in the final by China who also come through as 3-0 winners. China took victory in the gold medal matchup, only dropping two sets. Germany won the doubles in the bronze medal matchup, with Hong Kong winning three straight single matchups.

🥇China 🇨🇳

🥈Japan 🇯🇵

🥉Hong Kong 🇭🇰

Mixed Doubles

Xin/Shiwen (China) lost the opening set as number one seeds, but overcame Wang/Mo (Canada) with four straight sets. Ionescu/Szocs (Romania) earned a quarter final matchup with them after upsetting Pistej/Balazova (Slovakia). The rest of the opening round went to form. The Chinese pair won in straight sets against Romania. Lebesson/Yuan (France) came from behind twice to win a seven-set thriller in the quarter finals against Ting/Kem (Hong Kong). The bottom half went to seed, with the game between Mizutani/Ito (Japan) and Franziska/Solja (Germany) going seven sets and ending 16-14 to Japan. They took five sets to beat Yun-ju/I-ching (Taiwan) in the semi to book their place in the final against China. The final was a seven set thriller where Japan, buoyed by playing a home Olympics, pulled out an 11-6 final set after taking sets three, four and five. In the bronze medal matchup, Taiwan won in straight sets.

🥇Jun Mizutani/Mimi Ito 🇯🇵

🥈Xu Xin/Liu Shiwen 🇨🇳

🥉Lin Yun-ju/Cheng I-ching 🇹🇼