Japan’s Ai Fukuhara, famous for bursting into tears on national television as a toddler, has been given top billing at the world table tennis championships before even pinging a ball in anger.
The 20-year-old brought practice to a standstill on Tuesday, spending more than two hours tossing balls high into the air to see how the lights at arena would affect her serve.
Japanese camera crews tripped over themselves to film Fukuhara, who has little realistic chance of disrupting China’s dominance at the championships in Yokohama.
PHOTO: AFP
“I was working out exactly where to throw the ball into the lights,” Fukuhara was quoted as saying in Japanese newspapers yesterday. “I’m beginning to get excited about the championships.”
Fukuhara will take center stage, with one of the courts already being christened “Ai-chan’s Court” (Little Ai’s Court).
Once the darling of the Japanese media, Fukuhara appeared regularly on TV shows as a child where she would throw tantrums and wail out loud if she lost a point to celebrities.
Earlier this year, eight-year-old Miu Hirano eclipsed Fukuhara’s record by becoming the youngest player to appear at the Japanese championships.
Fukuhara, Japan’s flag-bearer at the Beijing Olympics last August, was 10 when she first competed at national level in 1998.
Hirano, who can barely see over the net, and has to be coaxed away from her mother’s side to play matches, is not appearing at the world championships.
In qualifying action yesterday Welshman Adam Robertson defeated Dino Suarez of Ecuador.
Robertson coasted to an 11-2, 11-2, 12-10, 11-6 win over Suarez to reach today’s first round of the tournament.
Crystal Huang of the US advanced to the first round of the women’s singles with an 11-6, 11-4, 11-3, 11-1 win over Armenia’s Tatevik Yengibaryan.
China is expected to dominate the championships after winning all the table tennis gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.
Chinese players will be the top-four seeds in both the men’s and women’s singles.
The championships feature men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely
RSS