Ai Fukuhara, a hugeTable Tennis Star

Ai is a huge star not only in Table Tennis in her country, but is a celebrity overall. She is an Olympian and a contender at major championships.

She has featured in two Table Tennis video games - Ikuze! Onsen Takkyū!! (Do it! Hot Spring Table Tennis!!) and Fukuhara Ai No Takkyū Icchokusen (Ai Fukuhara's Table Tennis) for Play Station 2.

She has carried the Olympic flame in Tokyo in 2004 and in 2008 at Beijing (where she was the nation's flag bearer).


Ai speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese. Such is her popularity, that she has featured in events with Chinese Premier Hu Jintao and Jackie Chan.

Kishikawa bags Japan Open title

Seiya Kishikawa beat his more famed rival, Jun Mizutani to win the Kobe Pro tour title. Kishikawa won 4-1.

Feng Tianwei won the women's title by comprehensively beating Ai Fukahara 4-0.

The highlight of the tournament was a spate of upsets in the initial rounds with a record number of seeds being shown the door in the Men's singles 1st rounds.

Editor