Hina Hayata has said there were many moments when she nearly gave up during the autumn, in her first words since retaining her WTT Champions Frankfurt title on Sunday.
The 26-year-old, who beat her compatriot Satsuki Odo 4-2 in the final, posted a long message on Instagram after the tournament. She wrote that she had felt herself getting stronger with every match in Germany, a feeling she said had been missing for some time.
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"Far more went wrong than right"
Hayata wrote that the week had felt different from her first Frankfurt title a year ago. "It was a very full tournament, where I could feel a different kind of growth, confidence and fulfilment from when I won last year," she wrote.
"It was a feeling I had rarely had lately, of getting stronger with every match," she went on. "In those moments when I kept going beyond my own expectations, I felt that all the struggle and the daily trial and error had been rewarded, just a little."
The title came at the end of a long run. By WTT's results, Hayata reached the final of WTT Contender Almaty in September, the semi-finals of WTT Champions Macao, the last 16 of China Smash and the quarter-finals of WTT Champions Montpellier the week before Frankfurt.
"The tournaments started in September, and in these two months I have played seven events," she wrote. "Far more things went wrong than went right, and there were many moments when I nearly gave up." She added that she was a little grateful to her own character for getting back up however many times she fell.
She thanked her support team, Team Hina, and Nakazawa, the head coach she named in the post, for believing in her through the defeats and for the practice sessions and conversations that followed them.
The notebook
During the tournament Hayata also explained the notebook she writes in during matches. "Basically I write down the state of my body and what is in my head, to put it in order," she told TV Tokyo. "I write it after every game and sort it out, then write what I thought in the next game. I keep repeating that."
She said she had never looked at the notes kept by Mori, one of her coaches, and did not need to, as long as what she said matched what Mori was thinking.
Three top-10 wins
Hayata's week included three wins over players in the world top 10. She came from behind to beat Kuai Man, the world No 4, 11-7 in the seventh game of their quarter-final, then beat Miwa Harimoto, the world No 3, 4-1 in a rematch of last year's final.
She did not treat that semi-final as settled. "I don't think I would win the same way if we played again," she told TV Tokyo, "so I think playing Harimoto is how I can get stronger myself." In the final she took the first two games against Odo, lost the third and fifth, and closed it out 11-6 in the sixth.
The title lifted her to world No 6 in Monday's ranking, behind Wang Manyu, Sun Yingsha, Miwa Harimoto, Kuai Man and Wang Yidi. Tomokazu Harimoto, who won the men's title, also wrote about his week on Instagram, saying he felt closer to his ideal style; his comments are in Eleven's ranking report.
What comes next
The season's last big events are the Mixed Team World Cup in Chengdu from 29 November and the WTT Finals Hong Kong from 8 December. Eleven's report of the Frankfurt finals has the results in full and the highlights.
