When Sydney nurse Tiffany Ho made her Olympic debut for Australia against world number 11 Beiwen Zhang of the USA, she needed to contend with much more than nerves during her 21-9, 21-4 defeat.
Tiffany, who was urged on throughout her match by a large contingent of family, friends and Australian supporters in the Porte de La Chapelle Arena, was on the court adjacent to the battle between France and Thailand.
The noise the home crowd made as they chanted, sang and roared on their team was so deafening she could barely hear her own thoughts, let alone her coach Leanne Choo’s instructions.
“I'm emotional to be honest. It is a crazy crowd out there and it's really hard to even just think and listen to my coach, but it's the atmosphere I kind of want,” Tiffany said.
“I thrive in that kind of atmosphere even though it probably wasn't the best match, but I think I gave it everything that I could so I feel really proud of myself.
“For me, it's like fake it till you make it, just being really confident on the outside helps me on the inside as well and that really helped settle the nerves.”
In the women’s doubles competition, Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu lost 2-0 to Japan’s Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida.
The Australian Olympic women’s doubles team of Setyana and Angela took the fight to Japan’s World number four ranked combination of Chiharu and Nami in the opening match of their Paris 2024 Olympic Games campaign.
Setyana and Angela have only been together for 12 months, and their performance, which was built on a solid foundation of Aussie grit and silky skill, adds to their rapid ascent on the world scene.
The 21-18, 21-14 scoreline is testimony to their effort. Indeed, the hotly-favoured Japanese were stunned when they were forced to rally after being shocked by Team Australia’s attack in the opening set.
Australian coach, Leanne Choo, was adamant they’d learn plenty from the match, and the excitement of playing in front of a capacity crowd at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena.
“This is their third meeting with the Japanese pair and they’ve progressively had a better result,” Leanne said.
“They had a really good first game and I think if they got that first one, it would’ve changed maybe the outcome of the game.”
“The Japanese were also quite good to adapt to what we were doing and were also changing their tactics as well.”
Daniel Lane
