Kanak Jha upset South Korea’s Cho Daeseong to reach the round of 32.
PARIS, France — One U.S. men’s table tennis player is on the verge of setting new heights for Team USA.
Kanak Jha reached the round of 32 after an upset win over South Korea’s Cho Daeseong on Sunday. Jha beat Daesong 4-2.
Daesong was the 15th seed in the tournament. Jha is the 59th seed and had to win in the preliminary round to reach the round of 64.
Jha and Daesong split the first two games in the match before Jha won three straight with scores of 11-8, 11-2, and 11-2. He closed the upset with a 12-10 win in game seven.
Jha’s efforts in Paris make him the first U.S. men’s singles table tennis player to reach the round of 32 in the Summer Olympics since Jim Butler did so in the 1992 Barcelona Games. No U.S. player has reached the round of 16.
This is the third Olympics that Jha is competing in. He is a three-time medal winner at the Pan American Games and has won the U.S. National Championship five times.
Jha’s next match is on Wednesday against Greece’s Panagiotis Gionis, the 56th seed in the tournament. Their match is airing on E! at 6:45 a.m. and streaming on Peacock.
On the women’s singles side, Lily Zhang is set to play in the round of 16 after defeating Brazil’s Bruna Takahashi 4-2. Zhang’s round of 16 match is on Wednesday at 2 p.m. against either South Korea or Hungary. Her match is streaming on Peacock.Â
Team USA reached the round of 16 in the 2020 Summer Olympics with Juan Liu. The farthest Team USA has reached in the women’s singles tournament was the quarterfinals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics with Wang Chen.
