On January 28, Beijing time, the 2022 Japan Table Tennis Championships continued. In the junior men's singles final, Matsushima lost 3-0 to Yoshiyama to finish second. This is also the second time that Matsushima has lost to the same opponent in the junior men's singles final after two years ago. At the award ceremony, Matsushima Huikong was expressionless throughout the whole process, which aroused the strong attention of netizens.
Matsushima Huikong, who has been dubbed a "monster genius" by the Japanese media, has gained countless concerns since he was a child, and can be said to be another table tennis player who has been watched and raised by fans after Ai Fukuhara. At that time, Matsushima Huikong was able to beat players who were much older than him at a young age, showing extremely outstanding talent. However, on the real stage, Matsushima Huikong encountered setbacks far beyond his imagination. In the youth group of the All Japan Competition in the past three years, Matsushima Huikong lost to Yoshiyama Twice in the final, once stopping in the top 8, and has not yet won the championship. Of course, considering that Yoshiyama is three years older than Matsushima, the latter's loss is also reasonable, but it is much worse than the expectations of the Japanese media.
Born in 2007, Matsushima huikong will not turn 15 until April 29, and his parents are both table tennis players. Because he was followed by the Japanese media since he was a child, the picture of Matsushima Huikong practicing in a stadium run by his parents in diapers is still talked about today. Since 2014, Matsushima has achieved five consecutive championships in Japan (toddler group, children's group, and junior group), and has the reputation of a prodigy. The Japanese Table Tennis Association was also quite aggressive in the cultivation of Matsushima Huikong, and let him play the ITTF Tour at a young age, but did not achieve too good results. What worries Japanese fans even more is that 14-year-old Matsushima Huikong showed signs of happiness during the All Japan Championship, with a lot of flesh on his face, which also raised doubts about whether he was seriously training. According to the speed of the replacement of Japanese men's table tennis, if Matsushima Huikong still fails to play in the next two years, the attention may be transferred to his younger brother Shoko Matsushima.