Mima Ito

It was the 10^th of June 2018 and in front of a packed Kita-Kyushu gymnasium the score-line read 11-08, 11-09, 11-06, 09-04. Chen Xingtong, one of China’s rising stars, was just two points away from securing a place in her first ever Japan Open final. Things had gone awfully wrong for Mima Ito, the local girl. Apart from the closely fought second game, Ito had been outplayed throughout the match, largely thanks to her lack of consistency. Her trademark backhand punches with her “short pimples”, usually lethal, had just refused to land on the table. But just when it looked as if Japan would not be represented in the final, the audience got to witness the most remarkable comeback of the year. Ito won the next seven points in a row and then with machine-like efficiency went on to win the next three games. It was as if she had one job to do: forget about the previous point and play the next one to the best of her abilities. No matter whether a point ended in a disappointing error or in a spectacular winner after a long, hard-fought rally she betrayed zero emotions, quite a contrast to another Japanese teenager who has been making waves recently. 

Mima Ito (Photo by Hideyuki Imai, www.ittf.com)

A month ago, TableTennis fans had witnessed a similar Mima Ito at the World Team Championships at Halmstad. In the final match against China, she faced Liu Shiwen in the opening encounter and was staring at defeat when the score read 5-1 in the final set in Liu Shiwen’s favour. What followed was extra-ordinary. The next point would have been astonishing even in the training hall; but the context just made it super special. Ito served short on Liu Shiwen’s forehand, who pushed the ball long on Ito’s backhand. A rapid-fire exchange that followed was cut short abruptly when Liu Shiwen’s topspin hit the net and landed on Ito’s side of the table, who somehow managed to keep the ball in play. But, quite understandably, her retrieve popped high and Liu Shiwen had the entire table at her mercy. She smashed the ball with considerable force, but unfortunately directed it right into Ito’s hitting zone. An ordinary player would have been pleased with mere contact with the ball. But Ito smashed the ball crosscourt for a winner and nonchalantly walked into position for the next point. The rest is history.

Mima Ito has been around at the top for some time now. Her constant presence in the top ten, consistent performances on the Tour and especially the grace and maturity she displays while playing has made us all forget that she is still just 17. It’s another glaring example of the systematic bias against female sportspersons that her stupendous achievements (and those of her teammate Miu Hirano) have not received the kind of attention that has been generated by Tomokazu Harimoto’s meteoric rise. 

Ito’s ascent to the lofty heights she currently occupies was no less sensational. She won her first major international title in 2014 when the German Open (one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year) was held at Magdeburg. In the Doubles event she paired up with Miu Hirano and defied odds by winning the title. Both Hirano and Ito were thirteen at the time. Ito returned to the German Open next year and managed to win the Singles event this time, beating Singapore legend Feng Tianwei in straight games in the semis and overcoming the crowd favourite Patrissa Solja of Germany.¹ Her reaction after her win against Feng Tianwei was priceless- there wasn’t one. Her matter-of-fact way of going about her business and her calm, composed demeanor belied the fact that she was just 15! The moment that catapulted her to world-wide fame, however, came in 2016, when she upset Ding Ning in the Asian qualification tournament for the Olympics in Hong Kong. Ding Ning, who had won the 2015 World Championships, despite battling an injury in the final, was (and probably still is) by some distance the best player in the world. It was then that the Table Tennis world first took notice of Ito and her compatriot Miu Hirano (who had beaten Liu Shiwen in the same tournament). Today, Ito has, without a doubt, established herself as Japan’s best player, having beaten Kasumi Ishikawa in the final of the Japanese National Championships.    

Mima Ito has an aggressive playing style that is as different from from the Chinese style as it is possible to be. Most Chinese women, play rapid, spinny rallies close to the table. They use subtle changes of direction to manoeuver their opponents out of position and then exploit empty areas on the table, while keeping their own bases covered with their electrifying footwork. Ito’s game doesn’t fit this pattern at all. Firstly, she has short pimples on her backhand. Although they impart little spin of their own, short pimples aid in “lifting” opponent’s backspins. Furthermore, flat hits with short pimples have some degree of backspin and are therefore difficult to counterattack.² Her extraordinary reflexes notwithstanding, her short stature restricts her ability to cover quick, wide balls. Therefore, she relies on her super-effective backhand punches and devastating forehand smashes to keep her opponents at bay. The other weapons that Ito and Hirano, both have found useful are their serves, especially what are widely described today as “shovel” serves. Their serves are incredibly deceptive and even the best Chinese players have struggled to get a reliable read on them. It was her serves that helped Miu Hirano overcome Zhu Yuling, Chen Meng and Ding Ning at the 2017 Asian Championship, just a month before the World Championships, sending alarm bells ringing in the Chinese camp. When Ito beat Wang Manyu in the final of the 2018 Japan Open, her serves continued to serve her well, helping her gain a head start in points when she was serving. The fact that Wang Manyu, who had quite comfortably beaten Ito a week before in Shenzen, was having trouble with her serves, goes on to show the importance of the art of constantly evolving one’s game, something which Ito is an absolute master of. 

Japan has completely revolutionised international Table Tennis by introducing a fabulous crop of young players, who have established themselves as serious contenders in big events. Hirano and Ito are being closely followed by Hina Hayata, who has an added advantage of being left-handed. The left-hand right-hand combination of Hayata and Ito won Bronze at the 2017 Worlds, matching Hirano’s Bronze in the Singles event. Hayata has been no less impressive in singles. She was a hair’s breadth away from beating China’s Zhu Yuling at the Grand Finals in 2018. Miu Nagasaki and Miu Kihara aren’t too far behind either.

With the next Olympics hosted by Japan, we are all eagerly waiting to see the Chinese response to this extra-ordinary resurgence by Japan.    

¹ In the Under-21 event at the same tournament Ito was beaten in the final by another Japanese teenager, Hina Hayata.

² Despite being rare on the international scene, short pimples are remarkably popular in India. Many of India’s leading women (Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar) have developed their games with short pimples.