Some random thoughts on T League
After the 2022 All Japan Championship, Hina Hayata lost her first match against Satsuki Odo but has redeemed herself with wins over Kasumi Kimura, Saki Yokoi, and Honoka Hashimoto.
The Japanese women in general are getting stronger and stronger. Even highly ranked foreign players do not do so well in T League despite most of them being designated as ace players due to their high world ranking:
Feng Tianwei WR#9 2-3
Han Ying WR#21 6-11 (including a loss to 13 yr old Miwa Harimoto)
Yu Mengyu WR#25 2-4
Shan Xiaonia WR#27 0-3
On the men's side, the best player might actually be Hao Shuai of the CNT. He has a 10-2 record and his 2 losses were single game victory matches. Koki Niwa, on the other hand, has been sliding. He has a 5-7 record. Last year's All Japan Junior champion, Kazuki Hamada, in his very 1st match as a T League Pro, beat Koki Niwa 3-1. Hamada at the All Japan lost to veteran Jin Ueda in 7 games in the round of 64 but already has an excellent start to his pro career. So Japan actually has some good young talent: Sora Matsushima, Hiroto Shinozuka, Ryoichi Yoshiyama, Kazuki Hamada in addition to the more established Uda, Togami, and Harimoto.