Olympic Recap Day 1

Ashleigh Barty (Rob Keating, Wikimedia Commons)

We know Ashleigh Barty is a great singles player. Well on Saturday, in the first full day of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, we found out she can be an excellent doubles player too. Barty teamed up with Storm Sanders in a dominant 6-1, 6-2 win over Japan’s Nao Hibino and Makoto Ninomiya, in a women’s doubles match that lasted just 50 minutes according to James Matthey of news.com.au.

Australia also had success in other versions of tennis as well. In men’s singles tennis, John Millman beat rising Italian-star Lorenzo Musetti, 6-3, 6-4. Meanwhile in women’s singles table tennis, Jian Fang Lay won her two matches in the preliminary round. First, she beat Daniela Fonseca of Cuba, 11-5, 11-7, 11-5, 14-12, and then Debora Vivarelli of Italy, 11-7, 5-11, 11-4, 12-10, 11-2. Lay will now have Qian Li of Poland in the second round.

Meanwhile, in team competition, Australian teams came away with two victories. In men’s field hockey, five different goal scorers got on the scoresheet in a 5-3 win over Japan in their opening contest. The Aussies to score were Timothy Brand, Tom Craig, Blake Govers, Aran Zalewski, and Daniel Beale.

Australia also had a convincing 8-5 win over Canada in women’s field hockey. The Australians were in complete control in this contest, and at few very times in the game did Australia seem threatened. In watching this game in its entirety, the Aussies seemed to be more opportunistic in their scoring chances. They had a 28% shooting percentage, compared to Canada’s 17%. Bronte Halligan led the Aussie offensive attack with a hat trick. Australia also deserves high praise for containing Canada’s Emma Wright, who had zero goals on four shot attempts.

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