Six years ago, seventeen-year-old Miu Hirano famously swept through three veteran and rising stars of the Chinese National Table Tennis Team—Ding Ning, Zhu Yuling, and Chen Meng—to capture the Asian Championships women's singles title. She had also won the World Cup women's singles title in 2016, though that victory carried less weight as the Chinese National Table Tennis Team had not sent players to compete due to internal reasons.
This marked the fifth encounter between the two. Their previous four meetings had all taken place during their junior years, with Shasha holding a 4-0 record against Miu Hirano. Their most notable clash came at eighteen during the Youth Olympic Games, where Shasha defeated Miu Hirano 4-1 to claim the women's singles gold.
Because of her stunning early breakthrough, Miu Hirano's playing style was thoroughly analyzed by the Chinese National Table Tennis Team quite early on, leading to highly inconsistent performances thereafter. Compounding this, she began making questionable career choices. She had originally trained under several Chinese coaches—from early mentor Liu Jie to later ones like Wang Rui and Zhang Cheng—whose guidance provided robust intellectual support for her development.
Chapter 183