Mima Ito vs Miu Hirano | #WTTSmashback | Singapore Smash 2024

Both have played some great backhands here down the line. Nina-Chan, Nina Ito has sharp pimples on the backhand. She looks to punch. Tried to do it there. But it's a high risk shot because you have to time it especially well as you can't create the arc that you can with the inverted rubber. 3-1 to the Hurricane. 1-4 4-3 Almost from the forehand side but look how she found the angle there. What a long serve. Spant. Two players who do the shovel serve very, very regularly. Ito especially has got such a diverse portfolio of serves and receives. See the strawberries, the chiquitas as well from her. 5-4 4-6 Nice down on the serve there from Ito. Hasn't dropped a game yet. Nina Ito. And neither has Herano. 4-6 Ito defeated the beautiful Nishalian. 3-0 in the first round and then another pimple player, Yangtze Liu of Australia. Herano beats Hayata and Samara. 4-7 Ito has the advantage of the moment in terms of momentum. Six of the last eight. 7-5 8-5 Yu Herano is 1.56m tall or 5ft2. And Ito is 1.52m tall or 5ft1. Or 5ft, excuse me. Very, very small. Kasumi Ishikawa is also pretty diminutive. Hayata is a lot taller than these two. Two-point lead here for Ito. Nice drop from Herano. Nibbling at the ankles here, isn't she? What do you make of that decision then? That Yu Herano has been favoured over Yu Maito for this, for the Olympics? Do you know what? I didn't really agree with the selection in Tokyo. But I agree with this. The Paris. What did you not agree with in Tokyo? I felt as though Hayata should have played singles at that moment. But I felt like there was a bit of sentimentality with Ishikawa being selected as the big sister when I felt like Hayata was stronger at that time. That's my personal opinion. Everyone can have one. Took the pace off that a little bit, didn't she? Yerano. Tried the chop block there, Mima Chan. There's a lot of intensity in that look from Mima Ito. Takes that first game. Shame, if anything, that the Japanese have to have two of their players facing each other in the last 16. But what can you do? How well is she playing? Into the middle. But look at that for a block. These two will know each other's game so well as well, Fraser, won't they? No secrets, is there? It's always tougher in many sports when you're playing for two players within the same team. It's quite often the lower ranked one kind of knows how to get under the skin of the higher ranked one. It's not just going to go to form. All that goes out the window. One, two. Two, two. Left. Two, two. Ten years ago. Left. Two, two. Three, two. Three, four. Four, four. Four, five. Five, five. Six, five. Five, five. Five, seven. Six, seven. Think about the best defensive players ever, the best players away from the table. They're probably not very short players. Left. We're going to see a defender later on, aren't we? So here, one. Ooh, the chop block there. Eight, six. And Hirano overloads. Well, well, well. Two points, yeah. Eight, seven. Just compare to how it was in the last match. Seems a lot slower, doesn't it? Well, in order to riposte there, it's only quicker. We both made as if to make a point. Look at the percentage won on serve. Ito, far more successful than her opponent. Eight, nine. Just the edge. How soft she just dinked it. And Ito's thinking that's the only thing that could have stopped me from winning that rally. How dare you. I didn't even hear a warning, did you? I have to say I didn't, actually. Eight. Yeah. Nine. I don't recall one so far in this match, do you? No. Not obliged to, right? Nine, nine. Chop block again, but this time... Wow. She's equal to the task, isn't she, Hirano, this time? What a dance that was. Game point here for Miu Hirano. Farming backhand and a chop block, but of course she can't produce as much spin. Hirano comes in and punches. Game point. Ten, ten. Which Hirano saves. Look at that for a serve. It looks like a shovel, but it's also kind of a tomahawk. One of the shovel hawks, isn't it? Spinnier servers. I've just come up with a new name. What? A shovel hawk. Ten, eleven. That's not one of your best. Game point here for Miu Hirano. Twelve, ten. Miu Hirano. One, twelve. That's a nice way to start off there for Mima Ito, who looked pretty unhappy at the end of that last game. Of course, beating Miu Hirano 3-0 would have been a very, very clear message to the selectors perhaps. That's not to be today. We kind of got the inkling of that as well, didn't we, at the team championships where Hirano was favoured over Mima Ito in the final, the semi-finals as well. Six of eight there for Miu Hirano. Yeah, you did. But again, I think that's maybe because there's a bit more studyable material, reference points of Ito for Team China. There. Because Hirano had just not been in this, right at the very top for a while, hadn't she? It might have actually worked out in her favour that she kind of fell out the picture and then has recently just come back. That's a good point. Two, three. Oh! Four, two. Four, three. Four, four. I mean, the flash with Yamtan and Harimoto was the one that we also spoke of. Well, that was an odd response there from Awkward from Hirano. It was an awkward serve. It's that little last second kick. Yeah. And it was slower, wasn't it? And it was attackable, but just a little bit away from the sweet spot. Five, four. Just dropped a little short there. Five, five. This is really a point at a time training. No one's really able to get a firm grip on this match yet. Trying to initially keep it tighter to the forehand or maybe just a bit less long to the middle and then go deep to backhand hard, Mima Ito. Six, five. Another edge there for Hirano down the parallel. Ito tries to laugh it off. Five, seven. So many parallels with these two as well. Pros for over 12 years, both of them. They're both 23. Just two years after their international senior debut. They walked into the world record books. As we said, there's Miyuki Hara there enjoying herself. Nine, five, seven. Six, seven. First time they ever played each other was in 2011 in an under 15 event. Ito winning that in straight games. As we said earlier, she has got a 7-4 advantage in the head-to-head. Eight, six. Four in a row against Hirano. That's in keeping as well with her stock rising and Hirano's dipping. But that looks to have shifted again. Eight, seven. I think she had an IOU, Mima Ito, against Annette here. Floated the serve. Basically no spin on it there from Hirano. I think it's interesting to see that the last time these two played was in the final of the women's singles at the WTT Contenders Zagreb in 2022. Ito won that 4-2. Took the title. It was also her last singles title that she has in the WTT series. Seven, ten. Trying to snatch there, Mima Ito. Again, we talk about the percentages of hitting a flatter ball a lot less than if you play over with a bit of spin. Three game points to the hurricane. Seven, ten. Three game points here for Miu Hirano. And she is in the lead for the first time here. Edges Mima Ito. That's right. Her and Mukherjee of India are the last two to beat her outside of Team China. So Hyewon and Han Ying got close in Lanzhou and Macau respectively. Lap two. Now, if you recall, Hirano on percentage points, percentage win on serve was 41. She's gone up to 56. Ito's dropped by about 8% herself. Left. Lap two. So a big shift there. Lap three. Well, this is a dream start for Hirano. And she wins this game. Of course, the match is hers. Everything is working. Seven out of eight. Four. What's going on here now, Fraser? Because she seems almost to be snatching at these things. Way too much. There's absolutely no construction to her game whatsoever right now. And it all started from the second half of the previous game. Yeah. And we haven't seen any changes to the approach. She just got a grip of things quickly. That's better. She needed that desperately. It's almost a bit of insecurity. It's like, oh, I just feel like I need to finish it quick. Otherwise, I'm not going to win the point. But this is a game that requires an immense amount of control with the fine margins. And you can't be too wild. One point. Remember coming into this. Apart from the fact that Hirano has had the more recent event win. Everything else was in Ito's favour. Ranking head to head. More career wins. More overall titles. Left. One. Five. She's trailing here big time. Two. Five. Tell you what, it's a good job, though, that Hirano got her act together in Game 2. Or this could have all been very different. Yeah, agreed. Belatedly in Game 2. Six. It was the turning point, wasn't it? Yeah. Now the floodgates have opened. It's not so much just stuff on the table. I think it's also maybe in her head. You can see some of the expressions. She was not happy. 12-16 now via Hirano. Left. Six. Two. Both looking to go beyond the round of 16 for the first time. Singapore smash. Six. Three. Mind you, Ito could look at Hirano's inspiration to see, look, here's someone who was right at the top and fell away and is coming back. I could do the same too. It's a good point. Three. Seven. And this is starting to perhaps run away now from Mima Ito. Three. Eight. Looking at the draw again. The winner of this plays the winner of Kim Nayoung and Wang Manyu. So probably Wang Manyu, a player who's beaten Mima Ito 13 times in 15 meetings. Now Hirano's only played Wang Manyu three times. What's that one? What a finish. Really nice. Eight. Four. What a finish indeed. That might be the most swagged out finish we've seen from Ito. Perfectly played. Went for the kill at the right moment. But yeah, that's 3-0 to Wang Manyu. But again, a lot less exposure. 13 out of 15, did you say? That's huge, isn't it? Mind you, I remember at the recent World Team Championships, I think Kino Hayata had never beaten Chen Meng in seven attempts. That's right. And then did it at the World Champs in the final, which was the best occasion. All the accoutrements that come with the backpack, both of them have that. Six. He's making his way back in here, Ito. There's only two in it. Six. Nine. Fraser was very sure of how that point was going to go. Did well. You can see a wide forehand receive coming. Something a bit different against the grain there. Nine. That one. Mima Ito. Is there still something left in this one? He's trailing by two. Nine. Eight. He's gauging the percentages way better here, Ito. Eight. Ten. Is that a little less snatch than some of the other shots? Because you said she's really gone for some of those two match points now for Miu Hirano. Well, she knows it has to be powerful, Ito, because if it comes back, her wide forehand's exposed, and that's going to be very hard to cover. Still a bread and butter ball. Two match points to the Hurricane Hirano. Two bites of the apple. Nine. One saved. Just to add to this drama. It's a venomous third ball. Six out of eight, though, still. It's not quite enough, maybe. We'll see. That should come just a little too late, Fraser. Ten. Ten all. Now, we saw a great comeback earlier, remember, from Liang Jingkun. It's not going to be quite the same here, because Mima Ito took the lead in this match. What we're seeing here is so psychological. Two amazing friends who grew up together. And that's what makes it so hard. I'm sure that you're right. That can't be easy. Well, Mima Ito has now moved in front. She's got a game point. What a run this has been. She looked to be in real trouble earlier. Eleven. She squares it here, Hirano. Had to make some minor adjustments before that receive. And again, a good backhand receive. Tighter. Second game point here for Mima Ito. How wide was that? That was so wide there from Mima Hirano to get that back. Split the C in half there. That's a fantastic shot from her. Yeah, she knows it. A bit of appreciation, I think. Would that be fair to say? Looked impossible to make that position from where they were. Unreal. Thirteen. Third game point now for Mima Ito. Thirteen. Well, she's managed to save a three-time there. The right smile coming back. Wow, for the first time she gets, in a while I should say, excuse me, Mima Hirano with an opportunity now to finish it off. Fourteen. She can't do it yet. This is crazy. Oh, good recovery for Mita because I felt like Hirano might startle her with the shot that she got back there. Fourth game point for Mima Ito. Such a short stroke. So compact. Oh, that was huge for Mima Ito. Nice. What are you trying to say? One. That's why you're here. I fancy Hirano in terms of what we've seen in recent times. She's managed to deal with the pressure. But who's got more of a point to prove? Ito. Two. We're not talking any minerals here or anything like that. The point to prove is definitely with Mima Ito for sure, of course. With that recent news of the Olympics. Especially after she won a gold medal denying the Chinese clean sweep with Mita Tani. Yeah, that was actually seen as a bit of an embarrassment almost for them, wasn't it? That they didn't get the clean sweep. Well, it was an introduction of the event. But beating Xu Xin and Lu Xiaowen in the final was just legendary for them. Six of the last eight for Mita Ito. Four. She's having the kind of start that Hirano had in the last game. But Hirano couldn't take advantage of it. Look at that. Twelve of the last sixteen. Shake of the head a number of times from Hirano. Wow, look at this. Yeah, she looks... Yeah, for the first time I think, right? It's fair to say. Four. One. Now, it was something similar in the last game. And actually at that point you were talking about Mima Ito snatching a lot of shots. And looking herself quite flustered. So it's a real testament to her that she's turned it around for now anyway. Five. I remember it being something like 5-1 as well in the last game. And then she dug really deep. Mima Ito. Glad to see your memory is still with us. Yeah, thank you. One. Five. I'm quite pleased about that as well. It was only about 15 minutes ago. Well, this is going very nicely for Mima Ito. What's happened here? This is quite the transformation here for Mima Ito. She's just a shell of the player that she was, Hirano. She's the one that started to snatch at the start of this game. She's in the driving seat here, Mima Ito. No doubt about it. Wow, that is way too good. Eight-one. Very, very nicely done by Mima Ito. Top block and then a forehand. No chance for Miu Hirano. If she can win this last game emphatically. One. Nine. I don't know whether the message can be sent necessarily, but she's still beaten Miu Hirano, right? Who beat Hayate in three straight games. What a topsy-turvy. Good point. A bit of information for the Japanese to consider. One. Two. Murderous. I mean, who saw this scoreline in game five between these two players who know each other like this? Especially when the preceding four have been really tight. Eleven. Well, that is a hammering in the last game. Mima Ito wins by three games to two.