3 minute read

Former tennis star Danni di Toro has made a tough start to her table tennis campaign at the Tokyo Olympics, but she's taken the defeat in her stride.

Australia's Paralympic co-captain Danni di Toro says she still has a lot of "unlearning" to do after suffering a first-up loss in the women's singles table tennis.

Di Toro is competing at her seventh Paralympics, but the first five of those were in tennis.

Given that she's a relative newcomer to table tennis, di Toro expects to receive plenty of hard lessons, and that was the case on Wednesday when she lost in straight sets to German Sandra Mikolaschek 11-6 11-4 13-11.

"These are the best players in the world and I haven't had an international match for over two-and-a-half years, and that's a big deal when you're developing as an athlete," said di Toro, who finished ninth in her table tennis class 4 field at Rio in 2016.

"I've come from tennis to table tennis and this takes at least 10 years to have half a clue.

"They (the two sports) are a universe apart to be really honest ... the way you use your body is so different.

"There's so much of my body that you shouldn't be using (in table tennis) and you know Maggie Meng who's my awesome coach constantly reminds me that, so there's still a lot of unlearning as much as there is learning to do."

Li Na Lei, a five-time Paralympic gold medallist who moved to Australia several years ago, opened her Tokyo campaign with a straight sets win over Brazilian Jennyfer Marques Parinos.

Fellow naturalised Australian Ma Lin, whose right arm was eaten by a bear in China in the mid 1990s, started with a straight sets win over Joshua Stacey in the men's singles.