Unlocked the first women's singles medal at the World Table Tennis Championships in her career, Misei Ito, who walked out of the low ebb, regained her "smile"

At the 2025 World Table Tennis Championships in Qatar last month, Japan's Mimato Ito won a bronze medal in the women's singles competition. The Japanese media believe that the difficulty of winning a women's singles medal in the individual event of the World Table Tennis Championships, in which five Chinese players participate, is not comparable to the Olympic Games with only two participants. At this World Table Tennis Championships, Ito defeated Wang Yidi, ranked No. 4 in the world, and locked up the women's singles medal. This is the third medal won by a player outside China in women's singles in the 10 World Table Tennis Championships in the past 18 years, after Miu Hirano and Hina Hayada (the remaining 37 medals were swept by China). From this point of view, it is difficult for players from other associations to win women's singles medals at the World Table Tennis Championships.

Ito, who had recovered, smiled at winning the medal

In January last year, at a press conference when she failed in the Japanese table tennis women's team representative selection tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Ito said with tears in her eyes: "Although there are feelings that cannot be over, there are also feelings that want to end. "Regardless of the world ranking and previous records, the selection tournament of 13 knockout rounds was repeated in less than two years, which was too cruel for Ito, who was ranked 4th in the world at the time of the world table tennis ranking at the time. Although Ito was the strongest to the outside world at the time, she may not be able to win if she has a knockout match within Japanese table tennis. Not only did he not have the advantage of the world rankings, but the disadvantage of being chased also came to Ito.

Perhaps because of this situation, Ito began to fall behind in 5th place in the qualifiers. Although he gradually caught up in the second half, he was eventually defeated in the battle for the right to appear with Miu Hirano. Ito, who was in the final stages of the match, was in a tattered state physically and mentally from the perspective of a bystander.

Combined with the above statements after the defeat, did no one expect a recovery from here? In the interview the following month, Ito said with a smile, "My goal is to become the No. 1 player in the world rankings that no Japanese player has achieved so far. "But Ito really recovered. After winning the bronze medal in women's singles at this year's Macau World Cup, the World Table Tennis Championships in Doha once again reached the women's singles podium of the world's three major tournaments. Japanese media said that Ito occasionally smiled during the game, conveying that he was happy but couldn't help it. Ito, freed from the shackles of the Paris Olympics, was very strong.