Image: REUTERS
Table tennis veteran Liu Jia continued her triumphant advance at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in round two. As in the first round, the 39-year-old gave up a defender, the success against the Ukrainian Ganna Gaponova was followed on Monday against Polina Mikhailova, who competed for the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), a 4-3 (-8, -7, 8.5.6, -8.5) victory. After three successes en suite, Adriana Diaz (PUR) will play in the round of 16 on Tuesday.
As against Gaponowa, the Linz woman needed something to find the right recipe against the defender. The first two sets were lost quite clearly, but from then on the six-time Olympic participant took command and went 3-2 in sets in the front. In the sixth round it went head to head for a while before Mikhailova made the preliminary decision to 3: 3 with a few points in a row. So sentence seven had to decide, in which Liu quickly defied and also prevailed.
Then she took a deep breath. “She is definitely not my favorite opponent, but I overcame my own fear today,” said the Linz-Froschberg player. You had no real concept against the 34-year-old from St. Petersburg, just knew that she should attack more than push. “I managed that, but sometimes my head also failed. I always wanted to play safely and look for the opportunity. I just knew I had to stick with it.”
Karl Jindrak, sports director of the Austrian Association (ÖTTV), was enthusiastic about Liu Jia's performance. “Mikhailova is not her dream opponent and after a 2-2 set deficit I didn't think she would win that.” From the third set onwards, Liu played more over the middle than over the corners. “Then she made fewer mistakes, became safer and also returned the attacking balls well.” The 20-year-old Diaz was certainly one of the more pleasant third round lots, said Jindrak.
(Cont.) Tb / pn
