Chinese journalist: Coach Kong Linghui said that Miu Hirano is our #1 enemy, and her technique is very advanced. We (China) invited Hirano to play in our Super League last season and it have helped her tremendously. Do yo think that was a wrong decision and will we continue to do that? Coach Liu Guoliang: As for Hirano playing, I have not paid much attention until ATTC-team Final. So after I seriously watched her play - and I really think she is much better player than I imagined. Last year I know she got the World Cup Title, but I did not really watched any of her matches. I think she got the World Cup Title because we had none of our players in the tournament. But this time I think she is a serious contender. In the singles of Asian Championships she was able to recover from 0-2 against Ding Ning and win. Then she was defeating our top players Zhu Yuling and Chen Meng, both 3-0. This is not a lucky coincident. Miu Hirano really got her things together, has solid skills, and have been in hard training. So coach Kong analyze is correct: Hirano has advanced skills, not only in one area of her game, but good balance in her overall performance. I think she surpassed all the japanese players we know so far, and clearly challenging ours. We need to look att this objectively. She is only 17 years old so there is room to grow - on the other hand - don't forget that we have room to grow too. We have touting the slogan "give female player man-like skill/style" but we failed. I will say we did not have enough improvement in that direction. Hirano was controlling the game, including a lot of attacking strokes. Also, her strategy and fighting spirit. Hirano is awesome. Her personal coach, and Super League coach both are Chinese. They have great influence on her game and it has helped her a lot. This involves strategy and skills. You can see those are the results of specific training. Hirano won World Cup, was inited to Chinese Super Leauge and now won the Asian Champion Title. But we know there is a Chinese coach behind this Japanese super hero. We should be proud of that, as table tennis nation. We don't need to panic because she is "made in China". We should be able to recover from this slump by doing closed training and improve our own skills. When we were talking "train female players to have man skill" some old school voices was saying: "We are #1, why do we need that change? This time is a great opportunity to sound the alarm. We need to change, or we will perish. Thank you."
