In the round of “32”, the journey of Panagiotis Gkionis in the Men’s Singles of table tennis came to an end at the Olympic tournament in Paris.
The 44-year-old Greek champion, in his sixth appearance at the Games, fought very hard but was defeated 4-2 by American Kanak Jha.
Essentially, the Greek champion paid for his delayed reaction against his opponent, who took advantage of his sluggish start to quickly reach 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-7), comfortably winning the first two games.
With his back against the wall, Gkionis attempted to counterattack and succeeded in claiming the next two games (11-7, 11-8), narrowing the score to 3-2.
In the next and decisive game, he followed Jha closely up to 9-8, but at that point, the American took the next two points and finished the match at 11-8.