The no.26 seed, at the quarter-final stage she beat Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa, the no.5 seed (8-11, 11-5, 14-12, 11-6, 11-2), to reserve her last four place. An upset but history suggests otherwise; since their first encounter at the 2007 ITTF World Tour Brazil Open in Belo Horizonte, they have now met 16 times in international events. It is eight wins…

In the girls’ team event, contrary to expectations, they secured first place in their respective initial stage group fixtures. Represented by Veronika Matiunina and Sofia Sheredeha, Ukraine recorded a 3-0 success in opposition to the second seeds, the Belarus combination of Ulyana Miashchanskaya and Veronika Varabyova. Belarus duly finished in second position and, like Ukraine, advance to the main draw.…

On Wednesday 21st July, those ideals were very much the theme for Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organisation, in his keynote speech at the 138th International Olympic Committee Session. He came with a very clear message. Most importantly he addressed the most topical subject of the pandemic and did not mince words; he was…

We’re now approaching the business end of the first week at Tokyo 2020, with both singles events entering the closing stages. Thursday’s programme opens with back-to-back semi-final encounters in the Women’s Singles draw with China’s Chen Meng and Singapore’s Yu Mengyu clashing at 11.00 local time. Then, from 12.00, we’ll see two of the sport’s most exciting young talents in…