Table Tennis profile: Ai Fukuhara – the child prodigy
Ai Fukuhara is a Japanese table tennis player who started playing the game when she was as young as three years old. She holds the honour of being the youngest Japanese player to become part of the national team as she was only 10 when selected for the squad.
She qualified to represent Japan in the 2004 Summer Olympics at the age of 15 and was the youngest ever table tennis player at the Olympic Games. She lost to Kim Kyung Ah of South Korea after a splendid performance at the 2004 Olympics. Ai has great potential
and it was clear to everyone that she can dominate the sport if given the opportunity as she came out as a much improved player in the 2005 Women’s World Cup.
Fukuhara became the Number one Japanese player in the ITTF ranking after replacing her fellow compatriot Aya Umemura. Fukuhara managed to secure a place in the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup but fell short of the Chinese player Guo Yan. However, she
ensured a convincing win over Tie Ya Na of China to win third position.
She is currently at the eighth position in the ITTF World Ranking as of September 2011 with a total number of 2659 points. Her best position so far this year was in April-May 2011 when she was at the seventh position as of the ITTF World Ranking.
Her performance at the Liebherr German Open in November 2006 impressed many as she stood against the World Number one Li Jia Wei of Singapore, as Fukuhara was on the fourth position at that point. It was the match well awaited as both players had won three
games each out of the six matches they played against each other.
The semi-final of the Liebherr German Open started off as promised when both players were level with one set each after the end of the second set. The top ranked ITTF player was really prepared as she started to toss top spins towards her opponent and had
a lot of success. Wei won the third and the fourth set as Fukuhara had no answers to the top spins of Wei.
The match got intense in the fifth set when the scores were level at 9-9 before Jia Wei showed her dominance and secured a place in the finals. The Japanese player fought well against the player who was better ranked than her but truly by the end of the
day one has to win and it was not Fukuhara on that particular day.
Fukuhara is a popular figure in Japan and has appeared in two Japanese video games as well including Ikuze! Onsen Takkyū!! Meaning Do it! Hot Spring Table Tennis! released in 2001. She has also made an appearance in Fukuhara Ai No Takkyū Icchokusen (Ai Fukuhara's
Table Tennis) released in 2004. Both the games were released for PlayStation 2 and gained a lot of popularity as it also added a significant number of fans for Fukuhara. The 22-year-old held the Olympic flame in 2004 and 2008 as she also carried the flag for
the Japanese team in the Olympic opening ceremonies.
She won the Bronze medal at the 2010 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow as she was the part of Japanese team. Her most recent win was during the World Table Tennis Championships 2011 held in Rotterdam, Holland as she won the bronze medal in
the mixed doubles event.
Fukuhara is a tremendously talented table tennis player. Many consider her as a child prodigy because of the early start she had playing the sport. The talent and competitive spirit of Fukuhara are destined to make her one of the top table tennis players
in the future.
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