On the afternoon of January 30, Beijing time, the two fierce rivals of national table tennis, Ito Mimako and Hina Hayata, met narrowly in the women's singles final of the Japan Table Tennis Championships to compete for the final championship. Because the strength of the athletes on both sides is very strong, the technical content of this battle will not be much lower than the duel of the main national table tennis team, which can be called the highest level of duel of the foreign association.
Prior to this, Hina Hayata won the championship after eliminating Mimachi Ito 4-3 at the 2020 National Championships, while Mimachi Ito won the silver after narrowly defeating Hina Hayata in 2021, and the result of this year's duo final was Thato 4-1, and won the second title of the new year after the women's doubles summit, and also won the women's singles gold medal for the third time, successfully defending her title of "one sister" in Japanese table tennis:
The strongest opponent of national table tennis is worthy of the name, and Hayata Xena still has to cheer!
Born in 2000, Ito and Hina Hayata are the best of the new generation of Japanese table tennis, both of whom have won the women's singles national championship and have also defeated the main world champion of the Chinese team. Today, with the performance of Ishikawa Yoshinori and Hirano Miyu in decline, Ito Mimakoto and Hayata Hina have become the most recognized top two female table tennis players in the island country, competing for the status of "first sister" in the team.
In the previous semi-finals, Hayata Hina finally won 3 consecutive sets of 3 sets to reverse Miyu Kato with a 1-3 trail, but Ito Mimako did nothing to advance - her opponent Miyu Kihara announced her retirement because of a fever, so Ito Saved a lot of physical strength and energy, which was much more advantageous than Hayata Hina who fought hard for 7 sets.
After the final began, Ito launched quickly, the first three boards clearly suppressed the opponent, and Hayata Hina was a bit messy in the service level, resulting in 5-11 losing the first set. In the second set, Hayata Hina began to launch, and the two sides of the arc circle ball were fierce, but at the last moment, the first three boards were clamped, and soon lost 8-11.
In the third set, Hayata Continued to collapse and was forced into a desperate situation by Yoshimachi Ito's 11-5 win. In the fourth set, Ito fell behind in the start and quickly succeeded in achieving a reversal, but Hina Hayata did not give up and instead pulled back Ichijo 11-8. However, in the fifth set, Ito regained the initiative on the field and finally won 11-6, beating Hina Hayata 4-1 to win the gold medal.
In today's game, Ito Made full use of his fast attack speed and the rotation of raw rubber sleeve glue, and carried out targeted restraint on Hayata Hina, forcing the opponent to deform the action many times, unable to exert the power of his arc ball, and then made frequent mistakes, which made him dare not exert his strength and completely fell into a passive beating situation.
At present, it seems that the quality of Hayata Hina's veneer is very high, but the connection speed still needs to be improved, and it obviously feels a little bulky in front of Ito Mimako, or it is difficult to compare with the other party, so the position of "first sister" of Japanese table tennis is still none other than Ito Mimako! Of course, Hina Hayata's excessive consumption in the semi-finals may also be an important factor in the collapse of her final, and Ito's luck is indeed good this time!
So will Ito, who has won two consecutive championships, have great confidence in the next impact on national table tennis? Let's sit back and wait for the ping-pong showdown between China and Japan to kick off again!