Kasumi Ishikawa
Kasumi Ishikawa (石川 佳純, Ishikawa Kasumi) (born 23 February 1993) is a *anese table tennis player. A regular member of the *anese national team, she won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, a bronze at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and a silver medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Women's team.
She is a left-handed inverted rubber shakehand player who primarily uses speedy top-spins and loops in offensive play.
Contents
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 2021
- 2 Popularity
- 3 Career records
- 4 References
- 5 External links
Biography
Kasumi Ishikawa's entire family, which consists of her father, mother, and younger sister, play or used to play compe*ive table tennis. She has a younger sister, Rira, who was also a professional table tennis player, while her mother *i Ishikawa is her current coach.
Upon graduation from Hirakawa Primary School in Yamaguchi, Ishikawa wrote in the yearbook of her dream to play in the Olympics. She first got public attention when she managed to defeat high school and even university students much older than her in her first ever All *an Table Tennis Championships. Since 2007, she has won the All *an Table Tennis Championships – female junior division; four years in a row. She was also nicknamed Ai-Chan II, a comparison to fellow athlete Ai *uhara, who also started playing table tennis at a young age. She models her underspin serve after *uhara.
Her talent for table tennis was due partly to her parents, both former players, who gave Ishikawa special training since she was young. Her mother, *i Ishikawa, had played at the national level. In the autumn of her first year of primary school, a special practice area in their house was erected to help her train more rigorously. After graduating from primary school, Ishikawa decided to live away from home and devote herself to table tennis. She entered *ennoji Habikigaoka Middle School, and then *ennoji High School in Osaka Prefecture. She practiced with all-*an-Cl* players until late at night including holidays. Her aggressive attacking style coupled with formidable speed were developed there. She began working towards the Olympics and played in international tournaments representing her club; ZEN-NOH, *an.
She competed at the 2009 World Table Tennis Championships, reaching the quarter final of the singles compe*ion. In 2011, she won the national singles *le at the age of 17. She quickly rose through the world rankings in recent years and managed to secure a place to compete at the London 2012 Olympics. She is currently ranked 6th in the ITTF women's world ranking as of July 2012 but has achieved ranking as high as 5th. She is now the best female table tennis player in *an after managing to overtake Ai *uhara in rankings.
She reached the semi-finals of the Women's Singles at the London 2012 Olympics but lost out to eventual gold medal winner; Li Xiaoxia of China. In the bronze medal play-off, she lost out to Feng Tianwei of Singapore. She finished an overall 4th position. This was her first ever Olympics participation and despite her young age of 19, she was seeded no. 4 at the Women's Singles Event. She is also the first ever *anese to have reached the semi-finals of the tournament.
At the Women's Team Event semi-finals, Kasumi Ishikawa helped *an to overcome Singapore by defeating her quarter-finals opponent in the Single's, Wang Yuegu in three straight games. In the third Double's game, she paired up with Sayaka Hirano to overcome Wang Yuegu and Li Jiawei in three straight games as well. The wins together with Ai *uhara overcoming Feng Tianwei in the first game brought *an to their first table tennis finals in the Olympics in three straight matches. However, *an failed to beat China in the finals but got their first ever silver medal in table tennis.
She won bronze with the *anese Olympic team in Rio de Janeiro 2016, beating together with Ai *uhara and Mima Ito on her side the team from Singapore. She also represented *an in the women's singles event, where she crashed out of the tournament after suffering a cramp in her leg, losing 4–3 to North Korea's Kim Song-i in their third-round match.
At the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships held in Düsseldorf, partnering compatriot Maharu Yoshimura in the mixed doubles event, Ishikawa and Yoshimura progressed through to the final, beating the combination of Fang Bo and Petrissa Solja in the semi-finals, and overcame the Taiwanese pair of Chen Chien-an and Cheng I-ching 4–3 to win the first *le in this tournament. It was also *an's first mixed doubles gold medal after 48 years.
In January 2020, she was announced to be part of the women's table tennis team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, together with Ito Mima and Miu Hirano. Furthermore, she will be making her third appearance in the Singles category with Ito Mima.
2021
Ishikawa at the 2017 German Open.Ishikawa defeated Miyuu Kihara in the semi-finals and Mima Ito in the finals to win the All *an National Championships in 2021 for the first time in five years. Afterwards, Ishikawa said that she was enjoying practicing recently, which she attributed to the pandemic putting things in perspective.
In her first international event of 2021, Ishikawa was upset by Hina Hayata in the round of 16 in the WTT Contender event at WTT Doha.
In June, Ishikawa stated that she was 70% ready for the Tokyo Olympics and that she wanted to spend the final month preparing so that there would be no regrets.
Ishikawa lost in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Olympics to Yu Mengyu of Singapore. Ishikawa won silver in the team event.
Popularity
In *an, Ishikawa has ranked among the five "most-liked" sportswomen every year from 2014 to 2020 in surveys published by Oricon, after ranking No. 10 in 2013. Because she is fluent in Mandarin which she learned from Chinese coaches, her popularity has also extended to China. When she opened a Sina Weibo account in 2016, she gained over 60,000 followers on the first day.
Ishikawa appeared in the 2017 film Mixed Doubles as herself.
Career records
Singles- All *an Championship: 1st (2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2021), 2nd (2012, 2013, 2017, 2019).
- World Cup: 2nd (2015), 3rd (2014).
- World Tour Grand Finals: 1st (2014), 3rd (2016).
- Asian Championships: QF (2012).
- Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics: 4th (2012).
- World Tour winner (8): Morocco Open (2010), Chile Open (2011), Russian Open (2014), Swedish Open (2016), Bulgaria Open (2015, 2017), German Open (2018), Czech Open (2018).
- World Championships: QF (2009, 2017).
- Asian Cup: 3rd (2007, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019).
- World Championships: round of 16 (2011).
- Pro Tour winner (6): Morocco Open (2009); German, Morocco, Hungarian Open (2010), Chile Open (2011), Bulgaria Open (2017).
- Pro Tour Grand Finals: runner-up (2011).
- Asian Games: SF (2010).
- World Championships: 1st (2017, 2019), 2nd (2015), round of 16 (2011).
- Asian Games: SF (2010).
- Asian Championships: QF (2009).
- World Championships: 2nd (2014, 2016, 2018), 3rd (2008, 2010).
- World Team Cup: 2nd (2011, 2013, 2018, 2019); 3rd (2009, 2010, 2015).
- Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's team: Silver (2012).
- Table tennis at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's team: Bronze (2016).
References
External links
- Official website (in *anese)
- Kasumi Ishikawa at the International Table Tennis Federation
- Kasumi Ishikawa at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
- Kasumi Ishikawa on Sina Weibo (in Chinese) (login required for Firefox users)