Thread about Japanese Players

[Catenaccio]

Miku Matsushima also won the U19 event at the WTT Youth Contender Vientiane. Cocona Muramatsu reached the final.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Miu Hirano faced her former team earlier today. She and her doubles partner won their doubles match. However, Miu lost to Ryu Hanna of South Korea 3-0 (6,9,9) in her singles match.

 

[jonol]

I wonder what the main bottleneck is for Miu Hirano. To me she always seems like she is close to a breakthrough and getting back to being a top10 player, but she never quite gets there.

One of my favourite players to watch, would love to see her make a few deeper runs in WTT events.

 

[zeio]

I wonder what the main bottleneck is for Miu Hirano. To me she always seems like she is close to a breakthrough and getting back to being a top10 player, but she never quite gets there.

One of my favourite players to watch, would love to see her make a few deeper runs in WTT events.

Hirano has been going it alone without a coach since 9/2024. It was also reported that Kinoshita Abyell was in financial trouble. With Hirano being on the reserve team, that means she has to play international tournaments at her own expense, and her decision to transfer to Kyushu Carina implies that she was not the top priority of Abyell, not unlike the case for Kihara who transferred to Top Nagoya.

 

[jonol]

Hirano has been going it alone without a coach since 9/2024. It was also reported that Kinoshita Abyell was in financial trouble. With Hirano being on the reserve team, that means she has to play international tournaments at her own expense, and her decision to transfer to Kyushu Carina implies that she was not the top priority of Abyell, not unlike the case for Kihara who transferred to Top Nagoya.

Ah that is a shame. I hope she can get it sorted.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Hirano has a wealth of experience and has had high level pro coaches in the past such as Rui Nakazawa and Zhang Cheng. Both Mima and Hina have gone without coaches before especially Mima for years after her break with coach Matsuzaki. Ultimately, it is Miu's choice whether or not she wants to get a coach or not. But the road to the Olympics(if that is a goal of hers) at this point would be extremely difficult as there are 10 Japanese women ranked higher than her. NER limit for Smash tournaments is 6 and 4 for Champions tournaments.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Congratulations to Kaho Akae, double crown (WS/WD) winner at 2026 WTT Feeder Vientiane. Kaho has won 6 Feeder titles in the past 12 months. On Mondays update, she will have the same ranking points as MIyuu Kihara.

 

[Catenaccio]

When the world ranking will be released on Monday, there will be some reshuffling in the top 10 (assuming my calculations are correct):

(1) WCQ
(2) F. Lebrun
(3) Matsushima
(4) Harimoto
(5) Moregard
(6) LYJ
(7) Calderano
(8) A. Lebrun
(9) LSD
(10 JWJ

EDIT: I forgot that the points from the Europe Smash last year will expire on 24 August, so the ranking above should be correct on 24 August.

 

[Janard]

With Miwa quite overworked and Sora clearly not keen on XD, are there other pairings possible? Tomo has made it clear he won't play unless with Miwa. Has Odo/Shinozuka ever been tried? Ofc there's Togami/Hayata but I imagine Hayata would likely play WS and WD already so...

 

[Catenaccio]

Has Odo/Shinozuka ever been tried?

They played together at the WTT Contender Buenos Aires in 2025. They won their match in qualification and lost 2-3 to Chitale / Sha in R16.

 

[zeio]

With Miwa quite overworked and Sora clearly not keen on XD, are there other pairings possible? Tomo has made it clear he won't play unless with Miwa. Has Odo/Shinozuka ever been tried? Ofc there's Togami/Hayata but I imagine Hayata would likely play WS and WD already so...

Ito/Shinozuka to save the day at Aichi-Nagoya 2026?

Why have I been crying about the lack of team unity?

 

[Janard]

Ito/Shinozuka to save the day at Aichi-Nagoya 2026?

Why have I been crying about the lack of team unity?

I actually really enjoy Ito/Shinozuka. Ito's clearly happier playing with her ikemen kouhai than with Mizutani-senpai No hugs even during gold medal

 

[zeio]

I actually really enjoy Ito/Shinozuka. Ito's clearly happier playing with her ikemen kouhai than with Mizutani-senpai No hugs even during gold medal

Speak of the devil. A Tieba thread on this.

日乒现在对混双到底是啥态度呢
https://tieba.baidu.com/p/10950022458

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Hina/Miwa are ranked #1 in women's doubles. Satsuki has two top 10 doubles pairings: #5 with Yokoi and #8 with Miwa. Hina and Satsuki are playing their cards right. If they don't get the LA2028 #2 spot, they both have exceptional doubles credentials.

 

[zeio]

Hina/Miwa are ranked #1 in women's doubles. Satsuki has two top 10 doubles pairings: #5 with Yokoi and #8 with Miwa. Hina and Satsuki are playing their cards right. If they don't get the LA2028 #2 spot, they both have exceptional doubles credentials.

Welcome to 12/2025.

 

[NextLevel]

Watching the Feeder in Berlin. Curious to see how far Kawakami can go, he gets Quek in the semifinal. If he survives that he is likely to get the Korean (who beat Ranefur) but the Pole might also get in on the act.

Omoda is doing well on the women's side but I suspect Mitrelhan vs Mende will decide the winner of the event and I expect Mende to win it all.

 

[NextLevel]

Onoda rallies from 0-2 down while Rin loses from being up 10-5 in the decider. The Korean wins, now Quek and Kawakami are playing.

EDIT: Kawakami wins 3-1 and will play the Korean Kwon in the final.

 

[NextLevel]

Omoda and Mittelham almost made me a liar but somehow Nina came back drom 0-2 down to win again and make the German crowd happy. Kawakami could not defeat fhe Kwon train and Kwon who I beliebe is 18 with wins over the likes of Kawakami, Badowski and Ranefur at this event will definitely be worth following. Unfortunately for the thread title, he isn't Japanese.... well done to Omoda and Kawakami and better luck to Rin Mende who was so close yet didnt close it out.

 

[NextLevel]

Togami now 4-0 in TTBL.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

New rankings out today. Somehow it turned out that Kotomi Omoda is right at #100 and Rin Mende at #101.