Day 2 of the Paris Olympics saw several athletes of Team Greece in various sports progress to the next rounds of competition.
In two of the most anticipated competitions of the day, Greek tennis champions Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas were both victorious.
The two of them won their respective matches and will continue their fights for an Olympic medal.
No. 7 seed Maria Sakkari easily defeated Danka Kovinic of Montenegro in just two sets, 6-0, 6-1. Her next game will be with China’s Yue Yuan.
“There is a long road ahead,” she told the camera after her win.
Tsitsipas, on the other hand, beat Belgian Zizou Bergs in three sets 7-6, 1-6, 6-1. His next and 2nd round opponent in singles at the Olympic Games will be Daniel Evans from Great Britain.
Team Greece rowers, swimmers progress at Paris Olympics
Team Greece rowers Zoe Fitsiou and Milena Kontou finished second in the Olympics qualifiers in women’s Lightweight Double Sculls Heats, with 7.08:51 time, and will be competing in the semifinals.
“We climb step by step,” Kontou commented. “There won’t be place for strategies in the semifinals, it’s willpower that is going to win there,” she added.
Christina Bourmpou and Evangelia Anastasiadou also made it to the semifinals in women’s pair heats.
Anastasiadou said they had a perfect race on Sunday but expected the seminals to be very different because all teams will want to make it to the final competition.
In swimming, Vangelis Makrygiannis and Apostolos Christou succeeded the qualifiers in men’s 100m backstroke heats and they both secured their participation in the semifinals.
Makrygiannis said he aims for a personal record, which he believes will take him to the final competition on Sunday evening.
Christou said there were great chances that both him and Makrygiannis could advance to the finals.
Greek basketball team’s bitter defeat at their Paris Olympics premiere
Greece suffered a bitter defeat in men’s basketball on Saturday evening, losing 79-86 to Canada. NBA star and former MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a game-high 34 points on just 17 shots for Greece.
The Greek team made a bad start and was ten points behind at half time, but fought back and tried to gain the lost ground in the second half with a few hot stretches. Nonetheless, Greece was still 12 points behind with 3.24′ left in the game, leading Canada to a clear win.
This was the first men’s basketball game Canada has won at the Olympics since 2000 in Sydney.
