# Miu Hirano

Miu Hirano (平野 美宇, Hirano Miu) (born 14 April 2000) is a Japanese table tennis player. She won Women's World Cup in 2016 as the youngest ever winner. She won the women's singles at the 2017 Asian Table Tennis Championships by sweeping away three top Chinese players. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal in women's team event.

## Career
### 2014

In March 2014, she and Mima Ito won their first doubles title at ITTF World Tour German Open. They became the youngest ever winners of the doubles competition in the ITTF World Tour. She was part of the Japanese team in 2014 Asian Games, but lost to China in the final.
In April 2014 she won her second doubles title with Mima Ito at the ITTF World Tour Spanish open.
In December 2014, she won the doubles title with Mima Ito at the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in Bangkok. The pair defeated Singapore pair of Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu in the semi-finals and Poland pair of Katarzyna Grzybowska and Natalia Partyka in the final.

### 2015

On 5 July 2015, Miu Hirano and Mima Ito won the Women's Doubles title at the ITTF World Tour Korean Open. This was their third doubles title since 2014.

### 2016

In April 2016, she won her first women's singles title in ITTF World Tour Polish Open by defeating Yu Mengyu in the Final.
On 9 October 2016, with the absence of Chinese players, she seized the opportunity to win the Women's World Cup in Philadelphia, USA after defeating Mima Ito in the quarterfinals, Feng Tianwei in the semi-final and Cheng I-ching in the final. This marks the youngest women's World Cup Champion and the first non-Chinese player to win the title.

### 2017

On 22 January 2017, she won All Japan Championships by defeating Kasumi Ishikawa 4–2 in the final at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. On 14 April 2017, she defeated the world ranked No.1 player Ding Ning at the 2017 ITTF Asian Table Tennis Championships. The following day of the tournament, she defeated the world ranked No.2 player Zhu Yuling in the Semifinals and Chen Meng world ranked No.5 in the Finals, where she set a new record for the youngest winner of the Asian Championships in the singles event. She became the third non-Chinese player ever and the first non-Chinese player since Chire Koyama in 1996 to win the singles title.
In the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships in Düsseldorf, Hirano progressed to the singles semi-finals but lost to Ding Ning of China. She obtained a joint bronze medal with Liu Shiwen of China. This ended a long medal drought for Japan in women's singles at the world championships since Toshiko Kowada achieved the gold medal in 1969 World Championships.

### 2021

Hirano represented Japan at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in the team event, but did not play in the singles event. In March, Hirano played in WTT Doha, but suffered disappointing upsets in both the WTT Contender and WTT Star Contender event, including a loss to Shin Yubin in a potential Olympic Team preview.
Hirano won silver in the team event at the Tokyo Olympics.

## Teams

Teams joined in T.League:
* Nissay Red Elf (2018–2022)
* Kinoshita Abyell Kanagawa (2022–)

## Awards

* 2016: ITTF Breakthrough Star of the Year

## Records

* World Cup Women's singles the youngest Champion
* Asian Championship Women's singles the youngest Champion

## In popular culture

Hirano made her acting debut in the 2018 Fuji TV drama The Confidence Man JP.

## Performance timeline

Key :
| W | W | F | SF | QF | #R |
(W) won; (F) finalist; (SF) semi-finalist, rank added if bronze medal match played; (QF) quarter-finalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1 (S) singles event; (D) women's doubles event; (T) team event
| Tournament | | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| World Championships | S | | 3R | | SF | | 3R | | 4R | | 4R | |
| World Championships | D | | 2R | | 3R | | | | QF | | | |
| World Championships | T | | | | | F | | | | | | F |
| Olympic Games | S | | | | | | | | | | | QF |
| Olympic Games | T | | | | | | | | F | | | F |
| World Cup | S | | | W | SF4 | QF | 1R | | | | | QF |
| World Cup | T | | | | | F | F | | | | 3rd |
| ITTF Finals / WTT Finals | S | | | SF | 1R | 1R | 1R | | 1R | | | QF |
| ITTF Finals / WTT Finals | D | W | F | | | | QF | | | | | |
| Asian Games | S | | | | | | | | | | 3R | |
| Asian Games | D | | | | | | | | | | 2R | |
| Asian Games | T | F | | | | | | | | | F | |
| Asian Championships | S | | 4R | | W | | QF | | | | 4R | 3R |
| Asian Championships | D | | F | | | | SF | | | | QF | |
| Asian Championships | T | | F | | F | | F | | | | SF | W |
| Asian Cup | S | | | QF | SF4 | QF | QF | | | | | |
| Year-end ranking | Year-end ranking | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Year-end ranking | Year-end ranking | 42 | 16 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 22 | 17 | 13 |

## Finals
### Women's singles

| Result | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Score |
| Runner-up | 2014 | ITTF World Tour, Spanish Open | Li Fen | 1–4 |
| Winner | 2016 | ITTF World Tour, Polish Open | Yu Mengyu | 4–0 |
| Runner-up | 2016 | ITTF World Tour, Croatia Open | Hitomi Sato | 1–4 |
| Winner | 2016 | World Cup | Cheng I-ching | 4–0 |
| Winner | 2017 | Asian Championships | Chen Meng | 3–0 |
| Runner-up | 2019 | ITTF World Tour, Czech Open | Chen Xingtong | 3–4 |
| Runner-up | 2019 | ITTF Challenge Plus, Canada Open | Kasumi Ishikawa | 2–4 |
| Runner-up | 2022 | WTT Contender Zagreb | Mima Ito | 2–4 |
| Winner | 2022 | WTT Feeder Otocec | Haruna Ojio | 4–1 |
| Winner | 2023 | WTT Contender Zagreb | Sun Yingsha | 4–3 |

### Women's doubles

| Result | Year | Tournament | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Winner | 2014 | ITTF World Tour, German Open | Mima Ito | Katarzyna Grzybowska / Natalia Partyka | 3–0 |
| Winner | 2014 | ITTF World Tour, Spanish Open | Mima Ito | Liu Jia / Iveta Vacenovská | 3–2 |
| Runner-up | 2014 | ITTF World Tour, Korea Open | Mima Ito | Chen Ke / Wang Manyu | 0–3 |
| Winner | 2014 | ITTF World Tour Grand Finals | Mima Ito | Katarzyna Grzybowska / Natalia Partyka | 4–0 |
| Runner-up | 2015 | ITTF World Tour, Spanish Open | Mima Ito | Ai Fukuhara / Misako Wakamiya | 2–3 |
| Winner | 2015 | ITTF World Tour, Korea Open | Mima Ito | Hina Hayata / Hitomi Sato | 3–2 |
| Runner-up | 2015 | Asian Championships | Mima Ito | Kim Hye-sung / Ri Mi-gyong | 0–4 |
| Runner-up | 2015 | ITTF World Tour Grand Finals | Mima Ito | Ding Ning / Zhu Yuling | 0–4 |
| Winner | 2017 | ITTF World Tour, German Open | Hina Hayata | Chen Szu-yu / Cheng I-ching | 3–0 |
| Runner-up | 2019 | ITTF World Tour, Bulgarian Open | Saki Shibata | Gu Yuting / Mu Zi | 0–3 |
| Runner-up | 2019 | ITTF World Tour, Czech Open | Saki Shibata | Gu Yuting / Mu Zi | 1–3 |
| Runner-up | 2019 | ITTF World Tour, Swedish Open | Kasumi Ishikawa | Chen Meng / Ding Ning | 1–3 |
| Runner-up | 2020 | ITTF World Tour Platinum, German Open | Kasumi Ishikawa | Chen Meng / Wang Manyu | 1–3 |
| Winner | 2020 | ITTF World Tour, Hungarian Open | Kasumi Ishikawa | Doo Hoi Kem / Lee Ho Ching | 3–0 |
| Winner | 2021 | WTT Contender Doha | Kasumi Ishikawa | Cheng Hsien-tzu / Chen Szu-yu | 3–0 |
| Runner-up | 2021 | WTT Star Contender Doha | Kasumi Ishikawa | Shin Yu-bin / Jeon Ji-hee | 0–3 |
| Winner | 2022 | WTT Contender Almaty | Hina Hayata | Choi Hyo-joo / Shin Yu-bin | 3–0 |