Jones defeat & Murray withdraws from tennis singles

Day two of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is under way, and there has been a shock defeat for GB taekwondo star Jade Jones.

It came after Murray, also a two-time Olympic champion, pulled out of defending his title with a minor thigh strain.

He will still continue in the men’s doubles, alongside Joe Salisbury, after they won their opener on Saturday.

Elsewhere, Adam Peaty won his 100m breaststroke semi-final in 57.63 seconds as he looks to win a second successive gold in the event.

Temperatures reached 32C in Tokyo on Sunday, leading the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to activate its extreme weather policy.

Players were given a 10-minute break between the second and third set once the reading went above 30.1C, with change of ends and set breaks also extended by an extra 30 seconds.

Tuesday’s rowing has been cancelled because of adverse weather conditions expected, while Monday’s events had already been moved to other days.

If you’re just waking up, here’s what else you’ve missed.

• Swimmer Max Litchfield narrowly missed out on Team GB’s first medal of the Games, finishing fourth in the men’s 400m individual medley final.
• Aimee Willmott was seventh in the women’s equivalent, before GB finished fifth in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay.
• Team GB’s women’s hockey team, defending their Olympic crown from Rio 2016, lost 2-1 to Germany in their first match.
• GB’s rowers reached the men’s double sculls and quadruple sculls finals, while Vicky Thornley is into the women’s single sculls semi-finals.
• Japan’s Yuto Horigome won the first skateboarding Olympic gold with victory in the men’s street
• Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, the newly crowned Wimbledon champion, was knocked out in the first round of the women’s singles tennis, but Naomi Osaka is through.
• Eighteen-year-old Tunisian swimmer Ahmed Hafnaoui produced a major shock to win gold in the 400m freestyle.
• US golfer Bryson DeChambeau was ruled out of the Games after testing positive for Covid-19 before arriving in Tokyo.

Jones beaten in opening fight

Wales’ Jones had entered Tokyo 2020 as one of GB’s favourites to bring home a title. In doing so, she would have become the first British woman to win Olympic gold at three successive Games and the first taekwondo fighter to win triple gold.

Nicknamed the Headhunter, because she prefers to score points from her opponent’s head rather than their body, Jones is the reigning world champion in her division and had entered the Games as number one seed.

But she met her match in Alizadeh who, five years ago in Rio, became the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal with -57kg bronze.

Her 16-12 defeat of Jones in Tokyo was not the first win she has recorded over the world number one though, having beaten her en route to bronze at the 2015 World Championships.

Remarkably, this was Alizadeh’s first international fight since 2018. She fled Iran in 2020 and the Iran Taekwondo Association has refused to allow her to represent another nation.

Jones’ Games might not be over just yet, however, as she could be given the chance to fight for the bronze medal in the repechages later on Sunday.

Her team-mate Bradly Sinden progressed to the -68kg quarter-final as he bids to become GB’s first male Olympic taekwondo champion.

Murray withdraws from singles

Former world number one Murray had been due to face Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime in the first round of the men’s singles on Sunday, but withdrew before the match.

“I am really disappointed at having to withdraw but the medical staff have advised me against playing in both events,” he said.

He has been replaced in the singles draw by Australian Max Purcell.

Should Murray win a medal with Salisbury in the doubles, he will become the first man to win four Olympic medals since tennis returned to the Olympic programme in 1988.

Murray and Salisbury face German pair Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz in the second round.

Peaty and Wilby into final

In the morning’s swimming action, Peaty remains on course to become the first British swimmer to retain an Olympic title.

He qualified fastest for the 100m breaststroke final, more than half a second quicker than the next fastest opponent.

Fellow Briton James Wilby also made it into the final by finishing third in his semi-final.

Meanwhile, Litchfield finished fourth in the men’s 400m individual medley final, the same position he placed at Rio 2016, as USA’s Chase Kalisz won gold to take the first medal in the pool at Tokyo 2020.

Despite a strong showing in Saturday’s heats, Willmott was unable to mark her final appearance at an Olympics with a medal in the women’s 400m individual medley, finishing seventh.

Britain then finished fifth in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay as Australia won the gold medal with a world record time of 3:29.69.