Cuban tennis tennis champ Daniela Fonseca

Havana, July 22 (RHC)-- Cuba's Daniela Fonseca's debut in table tennis at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Saturday will be a duel of youth against experience, as she will face Australia's Jian Fang Lay, who has five previous participations at that level.

Daniela, who at 18 years of age is the youngest member of the Island's delegation, will have to face a 48-year-old woman with multiple participations in international events.    Although she has been representing the Australians since 2005, Jian Fang learned tennis in the country that is a power in this sport and comes out with many "flight hours" before the Caribbean player.

Fortunately, the latter has plenty of momentum and desire to do well, two factors that could become her allies in Tokyo's Metropolitan Gymnasium where she will try to achieve the consecration.

It is the first time that Daniela competes in such a demanding scenario. Her experiences are limited to tournaments in the Caribbean or continental level, such as the Pan American Games of Lima 2019, however she already demonstrated in the qualifying tournament that she is capable of "breaking" not a few predictions.

 In the mixed doubles event, she and Jorge Moises Campos, will face on Saturday 24 against the Germans Patrick Franziska-Petrissa Solja, a duo with more international exposure.

The mixed event is the first time in Olympic events, only 16 couples have qualified and Cuba is the only Latin American team.

For Daniela, everything she experiences in this city has a premiere flavor. However, Moises already competed in Rio de Janeiro 2016 in the men's singles tournament and was unable to advance after falling in his first match. He hopes to erase that experience together with Fonseca.

Olympic table tennis will distribute medals in the individual and team events of both sexes, in addition to the premiere in the mixed event.