Japan's Mid-teen Table Tennis Sensation Miu Hirano Grabs World Women's Singles Cup

Today's episode has to do with table tennis in which Japan's women team won bronze medals and men silvers at Rio. The results suggest China's supremacy in the world of table tennis seems somewhat fading as Japan is closing in fast.

Now, Japan's 16-year-old table tennis prodigy Miu Hirano triumphed in the 2016 Women's World Cup in Philadelphia, USA - a feat never achieved by any of her rivals - Ai Fukuhara, Kasumi Ishikawa, and Mima Ito.

Miu Hirano and Mima Ito, both mid-teens, are intimate friends and pair up in doubles in official games at home and abroad.  Their friendly rivalry tilted at one time in Ito's favor as she was selected a member of the Rio Olympic team, while Hirano was sidelined as a training partner.

Asked in a magazine interview whether or not she felt bitter about being "outrun" by Mima Ito, Hirano said:

"I felt awful for a while, feeling left behind, but not for such a long. I rather feel awful now for having dropped that kind of feeling too soon."

In Philadelphia, Hirano crashed her high-ranking opponents from quarterfinals and beyond. In the quarterfinal, she met Mima Ito and downed her 4-1. She lost the first game she could have won and went to sweep the rest to beat her arch rival in the all-important world cup game.

In the semifinal, Hirano faced Singapore's veteran Feng Tianwei in what seemed a close match, which she managed to win 4-2. The final game against Taiwan's Cheng I. Ching turned out to be the stage of Hirano's superb performance against which Ching could do only so little. The 4-0 loss of the game against 16- year-old Hirano must remain a bitter humiliation in the mind of Cheng I. Ching.

Mima Ito and Miu Hirano are comparable to Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe in men's tennis back in 1970-80. Remember - they are both only 16 years old!