Miu Hirano
Japanese table tennis player
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Miu Hirano (平野 美宇, Hirano Miu) (born 14 April 2000) is a Japanese table tennis player.[6][7] In 2016, she won the Women's World Cup, becoming the youngest winner in the tournament's history and the first non-Chinese woman to win this tournament. She also won the women's singles title at the 2017 Asian Table Tennis Championships after defeating three top-ranked Chinese players. Hirano competed in the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics, earning silver medals in the women's team event at both games.
Hirano at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 14 April 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.58 m (5 ft 2 in)[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Table tennis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Kinoshita Abyell Kanagawa (T.League)[3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Playing style | Right-handed, shakehand grip, counter driver | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Equipment | Butterfly Viscaria FL (blade), Butterfly Tenergy 05 Hard (FH, black), Butterfly Tenergy 05 (BH, red) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest ranking | 5 (July 2017)[4] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current ranking | 26 (14 September 2026)[5] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Career
2014–2015
In March 2014, she and Mima Ito won their first doubles title at the ITTF World Tour German Open. They became the youngest ever winners of the doubles competition on the ITTF World Tour.[8][9] She was part of the Japanese team at the 2014 Asian Games, but lost to China in the final.
In April 2014 she won her second doubles title with Mima Ito at the ITTF World Tour Spanish Open.[10]
In December 2014, she won the doubles title with Mima Ito at the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in Bangkok. The pair defeated the Singapore pair of Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu in the semi-finals and Poland pair of Katarzyna Grzybowska and Natalia Partyka in the final.[11]
On 5 July 2015, Miu Hirano and Mima Ito won the Women's Doubles title at the ITTF World Tour Korean Open.[12] This was their third doubles title since 2014.
2016
In April 2016, she won her first women's singles title at the ITTF World Tour Polish Open by defeating Yu Mengyu in the final.[13]
On 9 October 2016, in the absence of Chinese players, she seized the opportunity to win the Women's World Cup in Philadelphia. She defeated Mima Ito in the quarterfinals, Feng Tianwei in the semi-finals, and Cheng I-ching in the final. This marked her the youngest Women's World Cup champion and the first non-Chinese player to win the title.[14]
2017
On 22 January 2017, she won the All Japan Championships by defeating Kasumi Ishikawa 4–2 in the final at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.[15]
On 14 April 2017, she defeated the world No. 1 player, Ding Ning, at the 2017 Asian Table Tennis Championships.[16] The following day, she defeated the world No. 2 Zhu Yuling in the semi-finals [17] and world No. 5 Chen Meng in the final, setting a new record as the youngest-ever winner of the Asian Championships singles event. She became the third non-Chinese player—and the first since Chire Koyama in 1996—to win the title.[18]
At the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships in Düsseldorf, Hirano progressed to the singles semi-finals before losing to Ding Ning. By reaching the final four, she secured a bronze medal, ending a 48-year medal drought for Japan in women's singles since Toshiko Kowada won gold at the 1969 World Championships.[19]
2018–2021
Hirano represented Japan at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the team event, though she did not compete in the singles event.[20] In March, Hirano played in the WTT Doha, but suffered disappointing upsets in both the WTT Contender and WTT Star Contender events, including a loss to Shin Yu-bin in a potential Olympic team preview.[21]
Hirano won silver in the team event at the Tokyo Olympics.[22]
2022–2024
Hirano saw a significant resurgence in the cycle leading to the 2024 Summer Olympics. In July 2023, she won the WTT Contender Zagreb, notably defeating world No. 1 Sun Yingsha in the final.[23] This victory reaffirmed her status as a top-tier threat to the Chinese national team.
At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Hirano competed in both singles and the team event. In the singles competition, she reached the quarterfinals, where she lost a close seven-game match to South Korea's Shin Yu-bin after nearly overcoming a 3–0 deficit.[24] In the women's team event, Hirano, Hina Hayata, and Miwa Harimoto led Japan to its second consecutive Olympic silver medal.[25] Later in 2024, she contributed to Japan's historic gold medal victory in the women's team event at the Asian Championships.[26]
Teams
Teams joined in T.League:
- Nissay Red Elf (2018–2022)[2]
- Kinoshita Abyell Kanagawa (2022–)[3]
Awards
Records
- World Cup Women's singles the youngest Champion
- Asian Championship Women's singles the youngest Champion
In popular culture
Performance timeline
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | |
(W) won; (F) finalist; (SF) semi-finalist, rank added if bronze medal match played; (QF) quarter-finalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage
(S) singles event; (D) women's doubles event; (T) team event
| Tournament | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Championships | S | 3R | SF | 3R | 4R | 4R | 2R | ||||||
| D | 2R | 3R | QF | ||||||||||
| T | F | F | |||||||||||
| Olympic Games | S | QF | |||||||||||
| T | F | F | |||||||||||
| World Cup | S | W | SF4 | QF | 1R | QF | |||||||
| T | F | F | 3rd | ||||||||||
| ITTF Finals / WTT Finals | S | SF | 1R | 1R | 1R | 1R | QF | ||||||
| D | W | F | QF | ||||||||||
| Asian Games | S | 3R | |||||||||||
| D | 2R | ||||||||||||
| T | F | F | |||||||||||
| Asian Championships | S | 4R | W | QF | 4R | 3R | |||||||
| D | F | SF | QF | ||||||||||
| T | F | F | F | SF | W | ||||||||
| Asian Cup | S | QF | SF4 | QF | QF | RR | |||||||
| Year-end ranking | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
| 42 | 16 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 22 | 17 | 13 | 63 | ||
Finals
Women's singles
| Result | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Score | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runner-up | 2014 | ITTF World Tour, Spanish Open |  Li Fen | 1–4 | [29] |
| Winner | 2016 | ITTF World Tour, Polish Open |  Yu Mengyu | 4–0 | [30] |
| Runner-up | 2016 | ITTF World Tour, Croatia Open |  Hitomi Sato | 1–4 | [31] |
| Winner | 2016 | World Cup |  Cheng I-ching | 4–0 | [32] |
| Winner | 2017 | Asian Championships |  Chen Meng | 3–0 | [33] |
| Runner-up | 2019 | ITTF World Tour, Czech Open | Chen Xingtong | 3–4 | [34] |
| Runner-up | 2019 | ITTF Challenge Plus, Canada Open | Kasumi Ishikawa | 2–4 | [35] |
| Runner-up | 2022 | WTT Contender Zagreb | Mima Ito | 2–4 | [36] |
| Winner | 2022 | WTT Feeder Otocec | Haruna Ojio | 4–1 | [37] |
| Winner | 2023 | WTT Contender Zagreb | Sun Yingsha | 4–3 | [38] |
| Runner-up | 2026 | WTT Star Contender Chennai | Satsuki Odo | 0–4 | [39] |
| Winner | 2026 | WTT Contender Almaty | Hina Hayata | 4–1 | [40] |
Women's doubles
| Result | Year | Tournament | Partner | Opponents | Score | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 2014 | ITTF World Tour, German Open | Mima Ito |  Katarzyna Grzybowska / Natalia Partyka | 3–0 | [41] |
| Winner | 2014 | ITTF World Tour, Spanish Open | Mima Ito |  Liu Jia /  Iveta Vacenovská | 3–2 | [42] |
| Runner-up | 2014 | ITTF World Tour, Korea Open | Mima Ito | Chen Ke / Wang Manyu | 0–3 | [43] |
| Winner | 2014 | ITTF World Tour Grand Finals | Mima Ito | Katarzyna Grzybowska / Natalia Partyka | 4–0 | [44] |
| Runner-up | 2015 | ITTF World Tour, Spanish Open | Mima Ito | Ai Fukuhara / Misako Wakamiya | 2–3 | [45] |
| Winner | 2015 | ITTF World Tour, Korea Open | Mima Ito | Hina Hayata / Hitomi Sato | 3–2 | [46] |
| Runner-up | 2015 | Asian Championships | Mima Ito |  Kim Hye-sung / Ri Mi-gyong | 0–4 | [47] |
| Runner-up | 2015 | ITTF World Tour Grand Finals | Mima Ito | Ding Ning / Zhu Yuling | 0–4 | [48] |
| Winner | 2017 | ITTF World Tour, German Open | Hina Hayata | Chen Szu-yu / Cheng I-ching | 3–0 | [49] |
| Runner-up | 2019 | ITTF World Tour, Bulgarian Open | Saki Shibata | Gu Yuting / Mu Zi | 0–3 | [50] |
| Runner-up | 2019 | ITTF World Tour, Czech Open | Saki Shibata | Gu Yuting / Mu Zi | 1–3 | [51] |
| Runner-up | 2019 | ITTF World Tour, Swedish Open | Kasumi Ishikawa | Chen Meng / Ding Ning | 1–3 | [52] |
| Runner-up | 2020 | ITTF World Tour Platinum, German Open | Kasumi Ishikawa | Chen Meng / Wang Manyu | 1–3 | [53] |
| Winner | 2020 | ITTF World Tour, Hungarian Open | Kasumi Ishikawa |  Doo Hoi Kem / Lee Ho Ching | 3–0 | [54] |
| Winner | 2021 | WTT Contender Doha | Kasumi Ishikawa | Cheng Hsien-tzu / Chen Szu-yu | 3–0 | [55] |
| Runner-up | 2021 | WTT Star Contender Doha | Kasumi Ishikawa |  Shin Yu-bin / Jeon Ji-hee | 0–3 | [56] |
| Winner | 2022 | WTT Contender Almaty | Hina Hayata | Choi Hyo-joo / Shin Yu-bin | 3–0 | [57] |
| Winner | 2026 | WTT Contender Almaty | Miyuu Kihara |  Syndrela Das / Sutirtha Mukherjee | 3–0 | [58] |
| Winner | 2026 | WTT Contender Panagyurishte | Miyuu Kihara |  Nicole Arlia / Gaia Monfardini | 3–0 | [59] |
