Table tennis WTT Macau Tournament and Korea Table Tennis National Championships have just ended, and the Japanese table tennis world has also begun to lively! Starting from January 24, the Japan Table Tennis National Championships will officially kick off.
Due to the rapid progress of the Japanese team in recent years, they now have four world champions in the team - Ito Mimachi, Ishikawa Yoshinori, Hirano Miyu, and Maharu Yoshimura, all of whom will participate in this national championship. In addition, Zhang Benzhihe, Hayata Hina and many other national table tennis rivals will not be absent, with a total of 972 people signing up, which is indeed a huge momentum!
The Japan Table Tennis Championships, officially known as the All Japan Championships, is the oldest large-scale table tennis tournament in Asia, held long before World War II, and is not much younger than the World Championships.
Because the Japanese table tennis team in the 50s and 80s of the last century was very strong, their national championships were also valued by everyone. However, then the Japanese table tennis declined for decades, and as a result, the gold content of its own events was greatly reduced, often won by Chinese players, until the 21st century did not recover, in recent years, it is full of weight, not to be underestimated.
Prior to this, Japanese veteran Hayabusa Mizutani had won the men's singles championship of the national championship 10 times, setting a record, and was also the Olympic champion of the mixed doubles. However, he officially announced his retirement last year, so he did not sign up this year.
This year's Japanese Table Tennis Championships singles championship favorites are still Zhang Benzhihe and Ito Mimachi, but the former has lost three consecutive matches to Yuya Oshima, Yukiya Utada, and Reiki Kawa, and failed to win the men's singles gold medal, and the latter has lost two consecutive times to Hina Hayata and Yoshinori Ishikawa, and has not won the women's singles championship, so the two still face severe challenges this year.
In addition, the competition in the field of doubles is also worthy of everyone's attention, Hayata Hina and Zhang Benzhi and Zhang Benzhi with mixed doubles, and Ito Mimachi with the women's doubles have won the world runner-up, the probability of winning the championship is very large if they play the national competition, but the women's doubles combination Ishikawa Yoshijun / Hirano Miyu, Nagasaki Miyu / Kihara Miyu have all ranked first in the world, and they are by no means vegetarians!
As for the men's doubles, the world table tennis championships new bronze medal winner Yukiya Utada / Toue Hayabusa is not bad, while Zhang Benji and / Morien Masataka are also optimistic, and the two pairs are expected to meet in the final.
So who do you think will be this year's National Champion of Japan? Feel free to leave a message and write your own predictions!