The 2025 All Japan Table Tennis Championships will kick off on January 21 next week. Japanese media disclosed on the 18th local time the content of the conversation between former men's singles and women's singles champions Mizutani Hayabusa and Kasumi Ishikawa in 2015.

The two champions of the 2015 face-off, Hayabusa Mizutani and Kasumi Ishikawa

Ten years ago, Hayabusa Mizutani and Kasumi Ishikawa, the 2015 All Japan Table Tennis Championships singles champions, had an in-depth conversation about each other's strengths, experience, and the current state of the table tennis world. At that time, Mizutani Hayabusa won the 7th championship at the All Japan Championships, and Kasumi Ishikawa won 3 championships. Mizutani praised Kasumi Ishikawa, saying, "She has a technique that is different from other fighters and an obsession with winning. Kasumi Ishikawa spoke highly of Mizutani and said, "Mizutani Hayabusa has a deep understanding of table tennis and has a lot of information in his head. ”。

Mizutani said, "I haven't talked much about the deep part, but there are also parts that only the players can understand," suggesting that he has been thinking about table tennis skills. The conversation also touched on the pain of standing at the top of the Japanese team, and Ishikawa said that he felt the difficulty of winning back-to-back games. From this point of view, they are all mentally prepared to overcome that pressure.

In addition, the duo emphasized that the presence of coaches is indispensable to the success of both. Mizutani talked about the importance of coaching to him and said that close communication with a dedicated coach will help him grow. "The coach when I was young was completely different from the coach I am now, and now what I need is changing," he said. He stressed the importance of quality coaching.

On the other hand, Kasumi Ishikawa also values the role of coaches: "Coaches are partners who fight together, and when they lose, they also think about the reasons together." She feels the importance of growing each other in her relationship with a dedicated coach, and she feels the change in her philosophy of table tennis. The two grew up in a table tennis family, and they have cultivated a passion for table tennis through a variety of resumes. Mizutani reflected on the impact of the harsh training environment, and Kasumi Ishikawa shared an interesting story about how her family grew up in love with table tennis. From their conversations, you can feel the growth attitude of the two of them at that time, aiming for great progress.