All Japan Championship 2020 Jan 13-19

Fun Facts:

This was technically the last Zennihon Takkyu of the Heisei era that took place in the Reiwa era.

https://sports.yahoo.co.jp/column/detail/201801290002-spnavi

　現在の全日本卓球は、毎年１月中旬に開催されているが、２００２年度までの約２０年間は１２月中旬に開催されていた（それ以前は別の時期に開催）。大会は５日ほどかかるため、かなりの確率で大会期間中にクリスマスを迎えた。かつて卓球人にとって、クリスマスは全日本卓球だったのだ。

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Currently, All-Japan Table Tennis is held in mid-January every year, but it used to be held in mid-December for about 20 years until 2002 (before that, it was held at another time). Since the tournament takes about 5 days, there was a considerable chance that Christmas would arrive during the tournament. For table tennisers, Christmas was once All-Japan Table Tennis.

Hayata ended Ito's 49-match winning streak.



Hayata is also the lowest world-ranked player to win the singles title in recent times. She's ranked 23rd as of Jan, 2020.

1/2020 3 Ito, 9 Ishikawa, 11 Hirano, 23 Hayata
1/2019 3 Ishikawa, 7 Ito, 9 Hirano, 43 Hayata
1/2018 4 Ishikawa, 5 Ito, 6 Hirano, 11 Hayata
1/2017 4 Ishikawa, 8 Ito, 9 Hirano, 23 Hayata
1/2016 4 Fukuhara, 7 Ishikawa, 12 Ito, 18 Hirano, 61 Hayata
1/2015 4 Ishikawa, 11 Fukuhara, 16 Hirano S
1/2014 9 Fukuhara, 10 Ishikawa, 25 Hirano S
1/2013 7 Fukuhara, 9 Ishikawa, 37 Hirano S
1/2012 8 Ishikawa, 9 Fukuhara, 12 Hirano S
1/2011 8 Fukuhara, 11 Ishikawa, 17 Hirano S

Despite crashing out in the 5th round twice in a row, Hirano actually reached the final 3 times in a row from 2016-2018. She also ended Ishikawa's hope for a 4th straight title. That was also her first-ever win against Ishikawa.

2011 Ishikawa(beating Fukuhara in SF), Fujii Hiroko
2012 Fukuhara, Ishikawa
2013 Fukuhara, Ishikawa
2014 Ishikawa, Mori Sakura(beating Fukuhara in SF)
2015 Ishikawa, Morizono Misaki
2016 Ishikawa, Hirano(beating Ito in SF)
2017 Hirano, Ishikawa
2018 Ito(beating Ishikawa in SF), Hirano
2019 Ito(beating Hayata in SF, who beat Ishikawa in R16), Kihara
2020 Hayata(beating Ito in SF), Ishikawa

driversbeat said:

At this point the Ishikawa bashing is a little perplexing. To me her and Hirano are on the same level in terms of chinese threat, i.e. almost 0. The only difference being that Ishikawa is more stable against the rest of the world and has 2 Olympic experiences under her belt. IMO a Ito-Ishikawa-Hayata Olympics team would stand a better chance against China. Hirano is just riding on the coattails of her 2017 successes and nothing else.

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Ishikawa and Hirano are actually pot and kettle when it comes to H2H against foreigners.

2019, https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...o-2020-Singles&p=297218&viewfull=1#post297218
2018, https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...19-Trial-3-2-3&p=263660&viewfull=1#post263660

Like it or not, Hirano actually started a technical revolution for the women's game. She is the first one to utilize the chiquita comprehensively and push forward the "real" offensive style in the women's game.

The Japanese women's team for Tokyo is a really interesting issue.
The fankids are all for dropping Ishikawa and selecting Hayata based on the latter's wonderful performance in the All Japan Championship.
I tend towards the idea that Hayata is still a little green and may find the next few months as a new National Champion a bit distracting.
So I think the best bet for Japan is to put all their energy into preparing their girls with particular focus on their likely Chinese and Korean opponents.

For myself, I am going to see if I can get a bookie to give decent odds against Hayata for the 2021 world championship!

https://hochi.news/articles/20200119-OHT1T50143.html

　女子シングルスで早田ひな（１９）＝日本生命＝が初優勝を飾った。会場で試合を観戦した卓球日本代表・馬場美香女子監督は、五輪代表の石川を破ってつかんだ頂点に「サーブも工夫していたし、レシーブも余裕がありいろんなレシーブができていた。相手が考えていないところにサーブレシーブを持っていくところが目立った。凡ミスも少なく、安定だけでなく実力がついた感じがします」と目を細めた。

　昨年はシングルスの準決勝で伊藤に敗れるなど、ここ一番で勝てなかった。しかし今大会では準決勝でその伊藤を破り、女子ダブルスとの２冠を達成。馬場監督は「強い選手に競るところまでいくけど、勝つところまでいけないのが、早田の課題だった。でも準決勝で伊藤に勝てたことが大きくて、脱却できたところがある。ひと山越えた」と高く評価。現在女子では６番手に位置しており、東京五輪の代表には選ばれなかったが「今回代表にはなれなかったけど、次の五輪や世界選手権で金メダル目指して頑張ると思っているので、難しいステップを乗り越えたんじゃないかなと思います。国際大会で数多く今日のようなプレーができたら、どんどん強くなる」とさらなる成長に期待を寄せた。

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Hayata Hina (19) = Nippon Life Insurance has won her first victory in the women's singles. The manager of Table Tennis Japan, Baba Mika, who watched the game at the venue, said after Hayata defeated the Olympic team member Ishikawa to clinch the title: "She worked on her serve and was at ease in the receive with abundant variations, also serving to places where it was not expected. There were few unforced errors and I felt that it was not only stable but also capable."

Last year, she lost to Ito in the semifinal, and couldn't beat the best here. However, in this tournament, she defeated Ito in the semifinal and achieved 2 crowns. Baba said, "Even though Hayata reached the final stages competing against strong players, her issue is that she couldn't win until the end. It was big for her to break the cycle and beat Ito in the semifinal, overcoming a big mountain. Currently she is 6th among women and was not selected as a representative of the Tokyo Olympics, but she expressed "I could not be a representative this time, but I will do my best to work toward the gold medal at the next Olympics and World Championships, so I think I've scaled past the difficulties. If I can play like this in international competitions, I'll become stronger."

http://mytabletennis.net/forum/foru...27&title=2017-wttc-germany-may-29jun-5#982527