The reigning national champion, Japan’s Sayaka Hirano, won the
Women’s Singles title at the German Open in Bremen on Sunday 22nd March
2009 beating Viktoria Pavlovich of Belarus in five games at the final
hurdle.
Hirano, seeded no.9, overcame the no.11 seed by the margin of 11-5, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 11-6.
It
was for Sayaka Hirano, the second ITTF Pro Tour Women’s Singles title
of her career; the one previous success being in Belgrade at the
Serbian Open in September 2006.
Leading Lady
Furthermore,
the victory recorded by Sayaka Hirano establishes her firmly as her
country’s leading female player; for several years she has lived in the
shadow of Ai Fukuhara, a player who has never won the Japanese National
Women’s Singles crown, but has excelled internationally and is a
celebrity in her own country.
At the moment, Fukuhara is not
enjoying the best of fortunes whilst Hirano goes from strength to
strength; a fact that is illustrated in her past performances in world
ranking events against Viktoria Pavlovich.
Three Defeats
On the first three occasions that she confronted Viktoria Pavlovich, she suffered defeat.
In
June 2004, Pavlovich won in Brazil in six games; whilst the following
year, she succeeded at the Volkswagen 48th World Championships in
Zagreb in May and at the Chile Open in Santiago in July. Both meetings
in 2005 were decided in seven games.
Different Story
However,
when the two met in January 2007 it was a different story, in the
second round of proceedings Sayaka Hirano won in six games and clearly
was becoming more adept at confronting backspin orientated players.
Japanese National Championships
The
latter fact was endorsed at the 2008 Japanese National Championships;
in the final Hirano beat O Ki, the name may not at first sight be that
familiar but she is a player of note.
O Ki is Wang Hui, a former
member of the Chinese national team and winner of the Women’s Singles
title at the Swedish Open in Kalmar in 1997; furthermore, she is
defensive player of high class, as her efforts a decade ago proved.
Confident
Undoubtedly,
the victory over a very high class defensive player in the final of the
Japanese National Championships gave Sayaka Hirano a major confidence
boost for her duel with Viktoria Pavlovich.
The self-belief was
evident, the concentration was total, the technique flawless and the
top prize duly secured, duly secured by Sayaka Hirano, the 2009 German
Open Women’s Singles champion.
Source: www.ittf.com
