(by Steve Hopkins)
Lily Zhang finally had her debut match in Paris this afternoon, a quick 4-0 win over Mariana Sahakian of Lebanon. Zhang was consistently better than the 46 year old Lebanese paddler, logging 11-7, 11-6, 11-4, and 11-6 wins. Zhang is through to the Round of 32, where she is likely to face Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi on Monday. There are no easy matches from this point forward. Takahashi, who is one of the strongest players in this Hemisphere, has won the only two times that the two have played head-to-head. The path forward for Zhang to the medal rounds would also include Shin Yubin of Korea, Manika Batra of India, Miu Hirano of Japan, and China’s Chen Meng.
Lily Zhang joins the other two Americans competing in Singles events – all three have now reached the Round of 32 in their respective events. Amy Wang won her match this morning 4-0 over Priscilla Tommy, and she will face off against Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz on Monday. Wang (and Diaz) have a path to the Medal Rounds that includes Nina Mittelham of Germany, Hina Hayata of Japan, and Sun Yingsha of China.
TeamUSA’s only Men’s Singles entry, Kanak Jha fought through a qualifying round yesterday and won his Round of 64 match today (logging wins over Vladislav Urso yesterday and Cho Daesseong today). Jha will face the winner of Panagiotis Gionis (Greece) and Edward Ly (Canada). Jha’s path to the Medal Rounds would need to go through Fan Zhendong, Tomokazu Harimoto, Lin Yun-Ju, and Felix Lebrun.
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Some of the other regional players in action today: Eugene Wang (Canada) fell to Shunsuke Togami 0-4. Puerto Rico’s Daniel Gonzalez lost 1-4 to Korea’s Jang Woojin. Puerto Rico’s Brian Afanador took a game off of Lin Yun-Ju (losing 1-4). On the Women’s Side, Canada’s Mo Zhang defeated Paulina Vega to advance and Puerto Rico’s Adriana Diaz topped Izabela Lupulesku.
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In the US, NBC will be providing broadcasts of the Summer Olympic Games through their various NBCUniversal networks. That coverage includes the main broadcast on the NBC network as well as other broadcasts on NBC Sports Peacock, NBCSN, and streaming coverage at www.nbcolympics.com. You can jump straight to our sport to see all of the coverage options by going directly to the schedule link at nbcolympics.com.
ButterflyOnline.com will continue to provide updates of TeamUSA throughout the Games.
