Women's Singles

Australian badminton player Wendy Chen began her Tokyo 2020 campaign on Sunday, facing Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt in the first of two group round matches.  

13th seed Blichfeldt took the first game 21-7, but the second game was a closer contest as Chen held the score to 8-8 early on.  Blichfeldt eventually ran away the winner, with the second game ending 21-14.  

“Some good and bad to take out of the match,” Chen said.  

“I didn’t get used to the conditions very well. The Danish (player) did much better in this area. There was a bigger draft than in the training time in the main hall and she took advantage of that.  

“I played much better in the second set, but it was too late. 

“But there is lots to learn from this game and I’ll be better on Tuesday.”   

Chen is the only Aussie taking on the singles draw and will have another opportunity to play on Tuesday (Day 4). She will face Bulgaria’s Linda Zetchiri at 1:20pm Tokyo time. 

Mixed Doubles

On Sunday, Australia’s mixed doubles outfit of Simon Leung and Gronya Somerville faced Japan in a two round match that ended in favour of the hosts (21-7, 21-15).  

“We knew it was going to be a tough match,” Somerville said.  

“It’s our first time playing against them, and I think we did pretty well,” she said.  

Taking confidence from their first match against Indonesia, the Aussie pair pushed their Japanese opponents all the way in the second game.  

“We came in quite positive knowing that if we just stick to the tactics, we should be able to do well,” Leung said.  

Somerville said the pair were still finding their feet but were improving with each outing.  

“We stepped it up and wanted to get into the rally and get as much time on court against them as possible to have that experience playing such a top pair,” Somerville said.  

“We haven’t had that many matches together leading up to this, we’re getting more confident as a pair as we progress through. Hopefully we’ll be even better in our next match,” she said.  

The pair will have a final chance to take to the court in their third group match on Monday (Day 3), when they take on Denmark at 1:20pm Tokyo time.