The 2024 Table Tennis Singles World Cup is about to kick off on April 15 in Macau, China, and during the three-year period of the event's suspension, the table tennis landscape has already undergone major changes, and the rules have changed since the resumption of the competition, and the number of qualified athletes has surged, so many rising stars have been given the opportunity to participate for the first time, including Japanese-Chinese player Miwa Zhangmoto.
As a 15-year-old player, Miwa is the only athlete who has a chance to break Miu Hirano's record and become the youngest singles world champion in history, so can she pull off a miracle in this tournament?
Friends who pay attention to the sports world know that in the past 30 years, people have gradually called the Olympic Games, the World Championships, and the World Cup the "three major competitions" in the table tennis world, as long as the athletes who can win the gold medals in these three events will be called "world champions", and in all seven events, men's and women's singles are undoubtedly the best reflection of individual strength, so they have also attracted the attention of fans.
But competitive sports have always been ruthless, and how easy is it for a young rising star to win a singles world title, and the youngest athlete to date has achieved this feat is Japan's Miu Hirano.
In October 2016, Miu Hirano won the singles championship in the Women's World Cup by winning the singles championship at the age of 16, thus creating a record as the youngest singles world champion in table tennis.
However, it should be pointed out that in that competition, the Chinese team gave up participating in the competition, so the difficulty of Miyu Hirano winning the championship was greatly reduced, but this does not mean that her strength is not good, because only a few months later, Miyu Hirano won the three main forces of national table tennis in the Asian Championships Ding Ning, Chen Meng, and Zhu Yuling to the top, but then sank for several years and never achieved such a good record.
In terms of age, Zhang Benmeihe, who is not yet 16 years old, is indeed younger than Miyu Hirano, and his strength has also reached the first-class level of table tennis.
But in terms of personal ability and timing of the competition, Zhang Benmei is far inferior to Miyu Hirano in 2016, and she may not be able to overcome either of the two difficulties in front of her in this competition.
First of all, there is pressure from the national table tennis - in this year's competition, the Chinese women's team not only did not give up participating in the competition, but also as many as six players qualified, namely Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi, Chen Meng, Chen Xingtong, Kuo Man, whether it is the top five world champions or the lowest-ranked hopeful star Kui Man, Zhang Benmeihe has never won, and it is still unlucky to meet again.
Secondly, the pressure on Zhang Benmeihe from the foreign association is also very great, and now she has no certainty of victory against the main Japanese force, and she is even more comprehensively inferior when she meets Hina Hayata, and she is only about 55 wins against South Korea's Shin Yubin, Zhu Qianxi and others.
At the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, Miyu Hirano was not only in good shape, but also at the forefront of the table tennis world on the road of women's backhand masculinization, and even Kong Linghui, the head coach of the Chinese women's team at the time, publicly admitted that the Japanese teenager's playing style was more advanced, and now Zhang Benmeihe can only be said to be at a good level, but it is far from leading other opponents, especially the main force of national table tennis.
But it can't be ignored that the skills and tactics of the 15-year-old are far from being finalized, so no matter how many times she has won against Zhang Benmeihe before, this World Cup still has to be seriously wary of her: Seven years ago, we underestimated Miu Hirano, and we must not repeat the mistakes of the past.