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China’s boss of table tennis Liu Guoliang said Sunday that it’s not a bad thing to suffer a big blow from arch-rival Japan more than three years ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games.

上周日，乒乓球国家队教练刘国梁表示称，在距离东京奥运会还有3年多的这个时候，遭受夙敌日本的一个巨大打击并不是一件坏事儿。

The head coach of the sport’s all-time leading powerhouses was shocked at his first sight of Japanese teenager Miu Hirano who beat three top-ranked Chinese to claim a sensational victory of the women’s singles at the Asian Table Tennis Championships.

中国一直是乒乓球界的霸主，而作为中国乒乓球国家队教练的刘国梁表示第一次看到日本小将平野美宇的时候很震惊，后者击败了中国排名前三的乒乓球运动员，在亚锦赛上获得了轰动性的女单胜利。

'She’s much better than I had imagined,' said Liu, a Grand Slam winner himself in his career as a player, on the conclusion of the continental tournament.

在比赛结束时，曾经的大满贯得主刘国梁总结说道：“她（平野美宇）比我想象得还要好一些。”

'When she came out the winner of last year’s World Cup, I thought maybe she took advantage of the absence of the Chinese women paddlers.

“当她去年获得世界杯冠军的时候，我还在想可能是因为中国女选手不在的情况下让她捡了个便宜。”

'However, I changed my mind when I saw her play here, firstly in the women’s team event. She’s strong enough technically and mentally, and capable of beating any one in the world,' added Liu.

“但是当我看了这场比赛之后我改变了看法，最先是在女子团体赛中。她在技术和心理上都足够坚强，有实力击败世界上任何一个人。”

Hirano, who just turned 17 years old on Friday, stunned China’s world No. 1 Ding Ning 3-2 in the quarterfinals before accounting for second-ranked Zhu Yuling 3-0 and finally seeing off world No. 5 Chen Meng, also 3-0, to smash the Chinese dominance of the tournament.

平野美宇上周五刚满17岁，她先在四分之一决赛中3-2惊败世界排名第一的丁宁，后又以3-0击败世界排名第二的朱玉玲，最后以3-0击败世界排名第五的陈梦获得女单冠军，动摇了中国的乒乓球统治地位。

'She’s so young and has so many possibilities in the future,' said Liu. 'That makes her success more intimidating to our women’s team.'

刘国梁说道：“她是如此年轻，未来有许多可能性，这使得她的成功对中国女乒带来很大压力。”

Moreover, the harsh challenge has been posed to China’s male paddlers as well as their women’s counterparts.

此外，中国男乒也一样面临严酷的挑战。

Top seed Ma Long was shocked out by the Chinese-born South Korean Jeong Sang Eun at the round of 32, and leading pen-holder Xu Xin lost to Japanese Koki Niwa in the quarterfinals.

在男单第三轮的比赛中，头号种子马龙意外爆冷不敌韩国选手丁祥恩，而许昕也在四分之一决赛中不敌日本选手丹羽孝希。

In Liu’s opinion, the difficulties that China faced in these Asian championships reflected the changes of table tennis world map in recent years.

在刘国梁看来，中国在亚锦赛中面临的这些困难反映出了近年乒乓球世界地图发现的改变。

'It’s not just recently that Japan wants to beat China,' he said. 'By the end of the day, their efforts finally worked out.'

他说道：“日本并不是最近才想打败中国的，今天他们终于成功了。”

The head coach, however, refused to stand all by the Japan’s side.

但是，刘国梁并不认为日本获胜就证明中国队一无是处。

'We do need to learn from the other associations, including the Japanese, who do an excellent job on youth training,' Liu said. 'But one failure should not lead to the whole denial to our own team.'

刘国梁说道：“我们的确需要向其他队伍学习，包括日本，他们在训练青少年方面做得很出色。但是一次失败并不能导致我们否认自己的团队。”

'It’s just an alarm from the opponents that warning us to be more aggressive and creative.

“这只是来自对手的一个警告，提醒我们要更有闯进、更有创造性。”

'I think it’s a good thing to have competitors who can pose real challenges, which makes our sport more competitive and more healthy,' he added.

他接着说道：“我认为拥有可以带来真正挑战的竞争对手是一件好事，这可以让这项运动更有竞争性、更健康。”