Hina Hayata

Born on July 7, 2000, in Kitakyushu, Japan, Hina Hayata developed an early interest in table tennis. Her career began to take shape as a junior player, notably contributing to the Japanese girls’ team that secured a gold medal at the 2016 World Junior Table Tennis Championships. During this event, she also earned silver medals in girls’ doubles and mixed doubles. Her early professional career included winning several doubles titles on the ITTF World Tour, including the Grand Finals in both 2016 and 2018. Hayata’s playing style is characterized by her dual-winged left-handed attack, allowing her to generate significant spin, a notable advantage.

Hayata continued to achieve milestones, including a bronze medal in women’s doubles at the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships alongside Mima Ito. In 2019, she gained international attention by defeating four-time Women’s World Cup Champion Liu Shiwen at the ITTF Portugal Open, an event she went on to win. The same year, she won multiple ITTF Challenge Plus tournaments, including the Oman Open, Serbia Open, Paraguay Open, and Belarus Open singles titles. In January 2020, Hayata won the All Japan Table Tennis Championships for the first time, overcoming Mima Ito in the semi-finals and Kasumi Ishikawa in the finals. Her performance continued to be strong, securing the women’s singles and mixed doubles titles at the WTT Star Contender Doha event in 2021.

The 2021 World Table Tennis Championships in Houston saw Hayata participating in three competitions, earning silver medals in women’s doubles with Mima Ito and mixed doubles with Tomokazu Harimoto. She was also a reserve player for the Japanese women’s team at the 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021), where the team earned a silver medal. In 2023, Hayata achieved a “triple crown” at the All Japan Table Tennis Championships, winning women’s singles, women’s doubles (with Mima Ito), and mixed doubles (with Tomokazu Harimoto). At the 2023 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Durban, she secured a silver medal in mixed doubles and a bronze in women’s singles. Later that year, she won singles titles at the WTT Contender Rio de Janeiro, WTT Contender Muscat, and WTT Contender Antalya. In 2024, she earned a bronze medal in Women’s Singles and a silver medal as part of the Women’s Team at the Paris Olympics, further cementing her status as a top table tennis player.