(by Steve Hopkins)

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are just underway and most of the big named players are not yet in action, but preliminary rounds are going on this weekend.  Men’s and Women’s Singles have now progressed into Round 2.

On the Men’s side, Lebesson and Habesohn each had easy wins.  Greece’s Gionis upset Egypt’s Saleh 4-1.  Gerassimenko and Jancarik had a tight match with the Kasack Kirill Gerassimenko pulling out a 4-3 win.  Brazil’s Tsuboi topped Ionescu and Jorgic topped Robles.  Lam Siu Hang of Singapore upset India’s Gnanasekaran 4-3.  Paul Drinkhall upset Gardos 4-1 and Chuang scored a 4-3 win over Cifuentes.  Finally, USA’s Nikhil Kumar’s run ended against Sweden’s Anton Kallberg 4-0.  Kumar had already logged two wins, but the Swedish player was too much.  Still, a great first Olympics for the 18 year old Kumar.

Round 2 Men’s Action on Monday will include some recognizable names, including USA’s Kanak Jha.  Kanak will play Skachkov – when the two last faced each other at the Austrian Open in 2019 it was Kanak Jha that won 4-1.  Pucar, Assar, Groth, Achanta, and Apolonia will all be in action tomorrow morning (which will be live late tonight in the US starting at 9am EDT).

Round 2 Women’s Action on Sunday included Switzerland’s Moret over Georgina Pota, Canada’s Mo Zhang topping Russia’s Noskova, Egypt’s Meshref over Partyka.  Korea’s Shin, Thailand’s Paranang, and India’s Batra each won their match in an upset.  Batra topped Ukraine’s Margaryta Pesotska who has fared extremely well in international competition over the last year.

USA’s Juan Liu will play her third match tomorrow morning (airing tonight at 9p EDT) against Balazova of Slovakia.  Liu was dominant in both of her previous matches, and Balazova plays a similar style to her last opponent except that she is left handed.  India’s second player, Mukherjee will be in action against Taipei’s Fu Yu, and USA’s Lily Zhang will open her tournament with a match against Nigeria’s Offiong Edem at 11am tomorrow (10p EDT).

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