Looking ahead to September's Events
With all August events complete, here are the things to lookout for in the upcoming months:
September World Rankings
For the first time in her career, Ito will be the highest World-ranked Japanese Woman at WR#7 while Ishikawa will be WR#8. Their seeding won't really be affected, so it's more of a prestige thing. Maybe it could lead JTTA to choose Ito to play 2 singles in the upcoming Team World Cup, so we'll see if Ito gets any perks from this development. After all, WR is the main reason she's hasn't played in the World Cup the past three years.
Hirano will be WR#9 and Cheng I-Ching WR#10. Hirano's goal is to be ranked higher than Cheng by October to get a top 4 seed for the World Cup. Cheng can overtake Hirano by finishing in the QF of the Asian Champs or by outperforming Hirano by at least one round in T2 China. How this plays out can make a huge difference is Hirano's chances of playing singles in the Olympics.
Paraguay Open Challenge Plus
Will Ito regret cancelling her entry in this tournament? Had she played, it would have almost been a guaranteed 1100 points since her level is significantly higher than the other players entered. The huge lead of Ito has diminished after the Czech Open after Hirano and Ishikawa were able to defeat several Chinese players. Before, Ito could simply rely on beating Chinese players 30-40% of the time to maintain her lead since Ishikawa and Hirano were expected to be sure losses to Chinese players due to their huge losing streaks against China. Now, Ishikawa and Hirano have both shown improvements in their game, and it would only take one big tournament from either or both to overtake Ito. If Hirano finishes 3rd in the World Cup, she overtakes Ito. If Ishikawa finishes 2nd, she overtakes Ito. If both get hot in this one tournament, Ito may be in trouble.
With Ito out, Hayata and Hashimoto are the favorites in this tournament. Hayata still has a shot at being selected for the Olympics as the 3rd Player, but getting her ranking up to 4th or 5th on the Japanese National Team will greatly help her chances. She needs to win this tournament to keep her hopes alive.
Mixed Doubles
The Ito/Mizutani pair seems to be the most successful Japanese pair this year and have had good results despite only playing 4 tournaments together. Despite some tough losses, they have still remained competitive in all their matches. By now, I think we can conclude that Ishikawa and Harimoto do not mesh well together. Harimoto misses Hayata and Ishikawa misses Yoshimura. It's a clear example of how the best players do not always combine to make the best doubles pairings. Let's see if JTTA decides to field Ishikawa/Yoshimura or Hayata/Harimoto again.
T-League Season 2
T-League starts this week and while it's not an official ITTF event, a lot can be learned from how the Japanese players perform here.
Kinoshita Meister Tokyo has a team of Harimoto, Mizutani, Niwa, Oshima and Hou Yingchao. On its face, the team seems overpowered, but given the recent form of Harimoto, Mizutani and Niwa, the defending champions may struggle. This is basically a test-run of how an Olympic team of Harimoto, Mizutani, Niwa will perform.
Nippon Life Red Elf
Can Hayata repeat her incredible MVP performance this season? Hayata has a bigger load to carry for her team now that the Chinese players on the team aren't playing in season 2. She now has a bigger target on her back, so it will be interesting to see how she deals with the added pressure.
Also, now that Red Elf's premier doubles team of Chang Chenchen and Jiang Hui is gone, who will play doubles? Will the team test out a Hirano/Hayata doubles pairing? If they do, and the pair does well, will this factor in JTTA's decision in choosing the Japan Women's Olympic Team?