Giant-killer Hirano steals spotlight, trophy at Asian championships

Dark Horse Miu Hirano came out the eventual winner of the women's singles after beating three top-ranked Chinese in a row at the Asian Table Tennis Championships here on Saturday.

The Japanese teenager, who turned 17 years old on Thursday, took a 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 quick win over Chen Meng, ranked fifth in the world, to lift the trophy that had been in China's hands for five consecutive editions.

Ahead of the unexpected final, Hirano beat Olympic and world champion Ding Ning 3-2 in the quarterfinals to produce the arguably biggest upset of the tourney, and shocked out world No. 2 Zhu Yuling earlier on Saturday.

Opening the final in style, Hirano rushed into a 5-3 lead, before Chen Meng nailed down four straight points with some brilliant moves around the table.

The Japanese, however, stayed calm and stable and seized back the advantage with her powerful serve and forehand, leading 10-9 with a 6-2 run and wrapping up the set 11-9 after winning a multi-hit rally.

It went more in favor of Hirano in the second set as the teenage sensation pumped to lead 9-4, even with a lucky point after she hit the ball to bounce on the opposite edge of the table.

Chen managed to narrow down the margin to 7-9 by pulling down three points in a row, before Hirano called a timeout herself at that time and came back to win 11-8.

The under-pressure Chinese then came to the edge of collapse, wasting a narrow lead of 4-3 early in the third set and granting the Japanese teenager an 8-5 lead with a bunch of errors.

Hirano then claimed three match points by 10-7 and wasted no time to win 11-7 with another forehand error from her Chinese rival. Endit