Miki Ito
Ito is Japan's most popular table tennis player, winning the Tokyo Olympics mixed doubles gold medal, singles bronze medal and team silver medal. Since 2018, Ito has defeated many Chinese players in various levels of competitions, and the world ranking has climbed all the way, reaching the second place in the world.
In China, some people hate and hate Ito, some people love and appreciate Ito, and some people are afraid of Ito.
Ito Mimachi is outgoing and spicy, with a unique style of play and a fierce style of play. Because her parents divorced at a very young age, her mother played the most important influence on her growth, and her personality also had the paranoia of a single-parent family.
The emergence of Ito Mimakoto has accelerated the replacement of New and Old Players in China, and also affected the selection criteria of the Tokyo Olympic Games, which has ended. However, although Ito Has indeed had a great impact and threat on Chinese table tennis, and has also had a greater impact on the world women's table tennis, in the face of China with long-term monopoly advantages, Ito Mimachi has also been very difficult along the way, and is destined to encounter many difficulties and various mental processes that ordinary people can hardly imagine during the period.
With the Tokyo Olympics as a watershed, Ito's career has also entered a new stage. Although Miyu Hirano and Hina Hayata, who are the same age as Ito, have also performed well in the past or have improved a lot in recent years, as the most important players, Ito still carries and represents the future of Japanese women's table tennis.
01
Ito was born in 2000 in Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Both my father and mother are professional table tennis players. His father ran a ping-pong related business, and due to poor management debts, he eventually got out of the house, and after his parents divorced, Ito Mimachi was raised by his mother and embarked on the road of professional table tennis with the influence and help of his mother.
The story of Ito Receiving Prenatal Education when he was in the womb and determined to defeat Chinese table tennis in the future is widely spread in China. "Only you can beat Chinese!" "You can definitely win!" This is the prenatal education of Ito's mother, Ito Minori, and what Ito often says after birth, which is indeed in line with the strong personality of Ito's mother, and Ito does feel very different from other Japanese female table tennis players.
Shizuoka Prefecture is rich in table tennis players, and in addition to Ito, famous Japanese players such as Mizutani Hayabusa and Hirano Miyu are also from Iwata City. Ito and Hirano have been practicing since childhood at a gym run by Hayabusa Mizutani ("Toyotacho Shōkō"). Ito and Mizutani Hayabusa are very close, only a ten-minute walk, so there is a reason for the tacit understanding between Ito and Mizutani Hayabusa, and it is no accident that the Tokyo Olympic Mixed Doubles won gold.
Mine Ito Hayabusa Mizutani
Mine Ito Miu Hirano
When Ito was very young, her mother, Ito Mino, once changed the table table into a table tennis table at home for Ito's ping-pong initiation. During this period, Ito Played a good ball, which made Ito Minori decide to let her daughter take the path of professional table tennis. Ito officially received training from his mother at the age of 2 and went to a formal training school to practice at the age of 5. The picture below is of the living room of Ito's family when he was a child. There is only a huge ping-pong table in the living room, and several trophies are placed next to it, which is where Ito often practiced since he was a child.
After the divorce of the parents, the family's financial situation is not very good, ito Mimachi's mother for a period of time even worked three jobs at the same time to support her daughter to learn ball and maintain the daily expenses of the family, this situation is not much different from many ordinary families. The difference is that Ito has a "devilish" mother. Her mother was cruel to Ito. Since the age of 3, Ito has trained for at least 7 hours a day. The evening training is too sleepy, so Squat down for a short rest, wash your face to stimulate the nerves, and then continue to train until late.
In an interview, ito called his mother "devil", but when he said this, Ito still smiled and said to his mother, "Thank you!" ”
After the Tokyo Olympics, Ito realized his wish to use Olympic medals to give gifts to his mother. Ito's mixed doubles gold prize was also rewarded by many parties, amounting to hundreds of millions of yen. On the economic front, the once-poor single-parent family has also been greatly changed, and Ito's mother and daughter have succeeded.
At the age of 5, he participated in a TV show with his mother
Ito was already famous when she was 5 years old, and her goal at that time was to surpass her predecessor Ai Fukuhara. At the age of 9, Ito won the all-Japan Table Tennis Championships in the fourth grade or below, and at the age of 10, Ito won the first round of the All Japan Table Tennis Tournament and broke the record of the youngest victory previously held by Ai Fukuhara, becoming a child star after Ai Fukuhara.
Yoshimachi Ito in elementary school
Influenced by her mother, it comes more from Ito's winning character and lofty ideals. When Ito was in elementary school, he set goals for the future. "Winning the 2020 Olympic Games includes team and individual victories." This is what Ito wrote in an essay when he was in elementary school.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics ended last summer, and although Ito failed to win the team and singles titles, he won the gold medal in the mixed doubles event with the Mizutani Hayabusa team and made Japanese table tennis history. Especially in Japan, the success of Ito Yoshimachi has indeed brought great satisfaction to the Japanese. Ito's popularity in Japan has also reached its peak.
In January 2022, ahead of the Japan National Championships, Ito announced that she would not compete in mixed doubles in the future, but would specialize in singles.
When I was in elementary school, Ito was determined to win gold at the 2020 Olympic Games
02
In March 2014, Ito and Miyu Hirano won the Women's Doubles title at the German Open, setting a record for the youngest person to win the CHAMPIONSHIP, and the two were only 27 years and 145 days old together. In the singles event, in the 2015 German Open, Ito won the singles championship; in the same year, Ito participated in the World Table Tennis Championships held in Suzhou, China, losing 2-4 to Li Xiaoxia of China in the quarterfinals; in March 2016, he and Ai Fukuhara advanced to the final of the Qatar Open and finally lost to China Ding Ning/Liu Shiwen, finishing second; in June of the same year, it was the Japanese Open that lost 1-4 to China Ding Ning, stopping the second round.
At this time, Ito Mimachi wants to defeat Chinese players, especially the main players, it is still very difficult. But in The Rio Olympic Qualifiers in Hong Kong in April, Ito beat Ding Ning 4-2 to create a miracle.
This should be it Ito's first victory over China's main players, and this victory has also greatly encouraged Ito. "Now against the Chinese players, although I feel that I only have a 20% certainty of winning, I always have 100% confidence in winning against the Chinese players. I hope to win a gold medal at the Rio Olympics this time and give the gold medal as a gift to my mother. ”
With these series of achievements, At the age of 16, Ito won a place to represent Japan at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and Ai Fukuhara and Yoshijun Ishikawa competed in the singles event. In Rio, the Japanese women's team eventually won the team bronze medal, and in the third place finale, Ito defeated Singapore's famous Feng Tianwei, contributing to the Japanese women's team to win the medal.
After the loss, Ito will weep on the sidelines
However, in Rio, it was it memorable that it was the semi-final match with the German women's team, and in the first set, Ito Hadao had a 9-3 lead that was overturned by Solja, which also led to the Japanese women's team eventually losing to the German women's team and failing to advance to the final. Years later, Ito still can't forget the match and sees Solja as the first person to make her suffer the most. In addition, what pained her was Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha and Ishikawa Yoshijun.
In the final of the 2016 World Table Tennis Championships team competition before the Rio Olympics, Ito had already attracted the attention of the table tennis world as the third number three of the Japanese women's team. At that time, CCTV commentator Yang Ying and commentator Zhang Yining were also greatly praised by Ito Mimachi.
Yang Ying couldn't help but say: "Ito Mimachi looks very different from other Japanese players. ”
Yang Ying refers to Ito's style of playing and the temperament of the game on the field.
Zhang Yining agreed: "Ito Mimako does have all the potential to become a super first-class player. ”
Unlike a few years later, Zhang Yining believed that Ito would no longer be a threat when he was over 20 years old, and in 2016, Zhang Yining did say this during the live broadcast. In that game, Ding Ning won 3-1. In the fourth set, Ding Ning won 11-1, almost sweeping away Ito Mimakoto, and the advantage was huge.
However, to everyone's surprise, four years later at the Qatar Open, Ding Ning was swept 4-0 by Ito Mimachi, and the third set was scored by Ito Mimachi 11-0, without a single point.
The match was broadcast live on Japanese television
The Japanese host made a gesture of disbelief
The match made the Japanese island nation rejoice, and the Japanese host even made a "can't believe my eyes" action.
This fiasco is also regarded as the most humiliating match of Ding Ning's career, since then Ding Ning basically withdrew from international competitions (only participated in the WTT Macau Tournament at the end of 2020) and Ito Mimako did not play again, and in September 2021, Ding Ning entered Peking University to study and announced his retirement.
03
Miu Hirano Miki Ito
Although Ito participated in the Rio Olympics in 2016 and stood out among the players born in 2000, from 2016 to 2017, she was more famous with Miyu Hirano, and her personal singles performance was not very prominent. Hirano has had two crazy performances in singles in 2016 and 2017, winning the World Singles Championship in 2016 and the Asian Championship in 2017.
If it seems that the chinese players did not participate in the 2016 World Cup, it seems that the gold content is not enough, but in 2017 in Wuxi, China, Hirano Miyu won the championship under three main Chinese players (Ding Ning, Zhu Yuling, Chen Meng), which caused a huge sensation and shocked China.
For quite some time, Hirano was regarded as the biggest opponent of the Chinese women's team, and there was no one. The Chinese coaching team also conducted meticulous research and targeted training on Hirano Miyu, and before Sun Yingsha entered the national first team, as the main sparring partner, she imitated Hirano Miyu's playing style.
Although she did not succeed in singles like Miyu Hirano, Miyu Hirano's success undoubtedly stimulated and inspired Ito more. When the whole of Japan celebrated for Hirano Miyu, the more competitive Ito Mimachi mother and daughter inspired themselves more secretly, they put in more hard and crazy training, looking forward to and believing that one day they would be able to break through.
Soon, the day came.
The 2018 World Table Tennis Championships Team Tournament was held in the swedish town of Halmstad, and the final of the women's team was played against the Chinese women's team and the Japanese women's team, and the first set was played against Ito Mimako. In this game, Liu Guoliang, then the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, who temporarily left the national table tennis at the time, made a commentary through Chinese sports. Throughout the game, ito's skills and temperament also shocked Chinese netizens watching the live broadcast.
Specifically, in this game, the power of Ito Mimachi's backhand raw glue exerted great power, which brought great trouble to Liu Shiwen. During the game, Chinese netizens can clearly hear Liu Shiwen say to li falcon, an off-court guide: "I can't figure out the rotation of her backhand." And Liu Shiwen rarely restricts Ito's backhand play by sending a forehand short ball, which also makes Liu Guoliang anxious. The live broadcast room shouted: "Why don't you send a forehand short ball, send a forehand short, forehand short!" ”
The match reached 10-8 in the decider, with Liu Shiwen leading by two points, but Ito Tookao equalised and won.
2018 World Table Tennis Championships team Mimachi Ito defeated Liu Shiwen
The final result was the Chinese women's team 3-1 Japanese women's team. In the fourth set, Liu Shiwen 3-0 Hirano Miyu will atone for her sins. But a point scored by Ito made the Japanese team": "See the dawn of defeating the Chinese team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics." ”
Ito's confidence has increased greatly as a result, "In the future, I will train and compete with the fighting spirit to bring down the Chinese team." Encouraged by this, Hirano Miyu said: "Compared with the previous matches against Chinese players, there is a more bottom, so the passive situation of losing will not last forever." ”
In the first half of 2018, at the Japan Open, Ito defeated Chinese rookie Wang Manyu in the final to win the championship. At the same time, Zhang Benzhihe also won the championship, and the Japanese men's and women's teams can be described as a momentary sight. At the end of 2018, at the Swedish Open, Ito Mimachi once again defeated Liu Shiwen in the decider, defeated Ding Ning in the semi-finals, and won the championship in the final, overturning the main layer of the entire Chinese women's team and replicating the miracle of Hirano Miyu in 2017.
04
Ito has won the mixed doubles gold medal and team silver medal and singles bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, but in the three years from 2019 to the end of 2021, Ito has not made a substantial breakthrough in singles.
Taisuke Matsuzaki is the coach of Ito Mimachi, and in December 2021, this young Japanese coach who did not have many qualifications when he was young but could create a top player like Ito Mimachi sighed in the face of the media: Ito Mimachi's peak has passed, and Ito Mimachi can no longer beat Chinese players!
Taisuke Matsuzaki became it her coach at a very young age and played an important role in Ito's growth, and of course knew Ito very well.
Matsuzaki Tasuke Finger Miki Ito
The reason why Matsuzaki Taisuke believes that the peak of Ito Mimako has passed, one is that Ito Mimachi's state is too early, two signs are one is the 2018 World Cup team final victory over Liu Shiwen, and the other is that in the 2018 Japan Open, chen Xingtong and Wang Manyu have won the women's singles championship!
Then there are two peaks first, Fuji Meicheng defeated Zhang Qiang, Feng Tianwei, Liu Shiwen, Ding Ning and Zhu Yuling to win the gold medal in women's singles at the 2018 Swedish Open, and itachi played Ding Ning 11:0 at the 2019 Qatar Open.
Matsuzaki Taiyo believes that it will be difficult for Ito to perform particularly well in the future, and the most important reason is that there are too many excellent Chinese players. When Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen and Zhu Yuling had not completely receded, Players such as Chen Meng, Wang Manyu, Sun Yingsha, Wang Yidi, Chen Xingtong, etc. had matured, and the Chinese coaching team's research on Ito Mimachi was becoming more and more thorough.
Throughout 2019 until the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships, in all the competitions, Ito's winning percentage of China's outstanding players has dropped rapidly. Including many open tournaments, T2 League, World Cup team matches, World Cup singles, Olympic team matches, World Table Tennis Championships singles and other competitions, Ito Mimachi has lost to China's Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Chen Xingtong, Wang Yidi and so on. At the latest World Table Tennis Championships, Ito was eliminated by Wang Yidi and was out early, while the Chinese women's team once again won the top four of the Singles World Table Tennis Championships.
05
Mother and daughter of Mimachi Ito
It is difficult for a single-parent family, and this mother and daughter have experienced many misfortunes and hardships that normal families have not experienced. The mother and daughter are also very strong in personality, and they desperately invest in the goal. For Ito's mother and daughter, Ito's success in achieving what she has achieved now has been very successful.
Ito Mimachi is just 22 years old, the future career is still very long, with the Tokyo Olympic Games as a watershed, Ito Mimachi has entered the third stage, and the future is still the strongest opponent of Chinese women's table tennis, which should not be underestimated.
In China, people have mixed reactions to Ito.
Someone hated, even hated, her. The reason for hating her is that Ito is too outgoing and arrogant. Winning the ball will fly high, losing the ball and all kinds of blackface and temperament. She hates her for the players she has beaten, and those players have a huge fan base in China.
Someone loves and admires her. I love her frank, tense personality; I admire her "undead" spirit of constantly working hard for her goals and not being afraid of failure. At the same time, her unique backhand raw glue has also enriched the way women's table tennis plays in the world today. The fierce attack, fierce and fierce style of the ball are the unique landscapes on the field.
There are also people who are afraid of Ito. From a player and coaching point of view, she was a frightening player. It can make the Chinese women's team change the Olympic selection criteria because of her. She directly marginalized players like Zhu Yuling and forced Ding Ning to announce his retirement. Ito made the Chinese coaches eat and sleep badly. From the perspective of fans in recent years, there have also been some people who have been frightened by Ito.
Japan has historically been a belligerent nation and a country that promotes force. In a way, Ito Mimachi has a certain resemblance to the spirit of "Bushido" in the past. If you are weak, then Ito will mercilessly crush you and then fast! Just like the once 4-0 sweep of Zhu Yuling and the single set 11-0 Ding Ning, this kind of scene will even make some people feel terror and fear. Although it's just a competitive sport and not a battlefield, it's a maddening feeling. Even amateur fans who often play amateur games will have palpitations when they encounter this kind of scene. Only if you are stronger than her, do not give her a chance, and constantly defeat her, she will finally submit to her anger and softness.
However, the emergence of Ito and the subsequent career are destined to bring vitality and excitement to the world table tennis world.