Doubles, Mixed

The newly introduced mixed doubles was received somewhat controversially. While the IOC tried to promote mixed gender events, others criticised the additional burden on participants, who also competed individually and in a team event. The world ranking list showed a completely different picture than in the singles events. Only one pair from the People’s Republic of China, Liu Shiwen and Xu Xin, appeared in the top 15 heading the ranking list, followed by Mima Ito / Jun Mizutani from Japan, and Cheng I-Ching / Lin Yun-Ju representing Chinese Taipei.

A total of 16 teams from as many countries could qualify for the Olympics. Four countries qualified via the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in December 2019 (China, Japan, Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei), plus six winning continental qualification tournaments, and made up to 16 by teams from the ranking list. Six teams each from Asia and Europe left just four spots for the rest of the world.

The number one and two ranked teams from China and Japan faced each other in the final. While Liu and Xu gave away just one game on their way to the final, Mizutani and Ito found more difficulty, losing five games. They particularly had to struggle for a 4-3 victory over Germany after winning a hard-fought seventh game by 16-14. In the final, the Chinese favorites easily took the first two games. Japan came back to win the next three games for a 3-2 lead, but China levelled it at 3-3 and forced a seventh game. The last game went 11-6 to Japan to make them the only country other than China to win table tennis gold in Tokyo. Expectedly, third seeds Cheng and Lin, who had lost the semi-final against Japan, brought the bronze medal home to Taipei. Surprisingly, their opponents in the bronze medal match were France, who beat the much-fancied Hong Kong pair in a close quarter-final.