Like you, we have loved finally being able to watch the Olympics this year.

In particular, it has been wonderful to hear about so many players, members, and fans (old and new!) being glued to the TV to watch Victoria’s Jian Fang Lay make it to another third-round match in her sixth Olympic appearance.

It was a fantastic effort by Jian, and we have loved watching the entire Australian team on the tables.

Ahead of Sunday’s Teams event, we took the opportunity to look at how our four Victorian Olympic stars have gone in Tokyo so far.

Jian Fang Lay was the first Victorian and the first Aussie to make an appearance at the Games this year when she defeated Cuba’s Daniela Fonseca in straight sets in their Preliminary Round battle.

Jian then went on to defeat Italy’s Debora Vivarelli in five sets (11-7, 5-11, 11-4, 12-10, 11-2) in Round 1, before playing a phenomenal match in Round 2 against the 28^th seed Qian Li from Poland winning in six sets (11-7, 11-6, 5-11, 10-12, 11-4, 11-4) to book her spot in the third round. This performance equalled her best result (Rio 2016), and the best result of any Australian in a Singles draw at the Olympics.

Unfortunately, her run came to an end at the hands of 12^th seed and three-time European champion Ying Han (Germany). Lay gained a couple of nice leads during the match (7-0 in the first, and 8-4 in the fourth), but couldn’t quite finish off the games as she went down in four sets (11-9, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8) to miss the Round of 16.

After the match, she expressed her disappointment to Table Tennis Australia and said it will take time to appreciate her good result in Tokyo.

“In the first game, I still had a chance. But in the end, I just tried my best. I wanted to get a good result and make my team proud.” Lay said.

“From an Australian perspective, we know what Jian can achieve,” said coach John Murphy. “We knew coming here that if anyone was going to have big results, that was going to be Jian.”

Heming Hu & Mellissa Tapper teamed up in the first session on Day One to become the first Australians to play in a Mixed Doubles match at the Olympics.

The duo came up against the tough 8^th seeded French pair of Emmanuel Lebesson and Jia Nan Yuan who defeated Hu and Tapper in straight sets (5-11, 9-11, 1-11, 0-11).

After the match the Aussie partners spoke to Table Tennis Australia and despite the loss were in good spirits.

“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,” Heming expressed to TTA.

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

“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 play Mixed Doubles at the Olympics].”

David Powell was sent straight through to the second round after his round one opponent Pavel Sirucek (Czech Republic) was forced to withdraw due to COVID-19 regulations.

In his second-round match, he came up against Slovakia’s Yang Wang and was unfortunately knocked out of the Men’s Singles draw on the Monday.

“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,” said Dave when he spoke to TTA.

“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.”

“TTV congratulates all the athletes who have competed in Tokyo - it is a tremendous achievement no matter the result, and they will always be able to describe themselves as Olympians”, said TTV CEO, Ritchie Hinton.

“Having four players from Victoria in the team makes us incredibly proud at TTV. There have been some real highlights, with Milly and Heming becoming the first Australians to play Mixed Doubles at the Games, David Powell making his second Olympic appearance, and of course Jian Fang Lay in her record sixth Olympic Games making it to the third round once again! We are eager to watch them all in the team’s event this week, alongside Michelle Bromley and Chris Yan,” he added.

The team will be back on the tables starting Sunday August 1 when the Women’s team play Germany in the Round of 16 at 3:30pm.

The Men’s team will then play Japan at 11am on Monday August 2.

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