On Easter weekend, Japanese teen starlet Miu Hirano shocked the Wuxi home crowd, not once, not twice but thrice - beating China's top three paddlers in a row to be only the third non-Chinese to win the Asian Championships women's singles title.

She stunned current world No. 2 Chen Meng 3-0 in the final, after thumping current world No. 1 and the title-holder Zhu Yuling 3-0 in the semi-finals.

Her toughest task was actually to set the ball rolling - the day before on her 17th birthday, Hirano had come from two games down to take out Olympic and world champion Ding Ning 3-2 in the quarter-finals.