Two 10-year-old girls on Wednesday broke table tennis icon Ai Fukuhara's record of being the youngest player to win a singles match at the national championships.
Miu Hirano and Mima Ito won their first-round matches at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, beating Serina Ichihara and Ayumi Matsuta, respectively.
Fukuhara, currently ranked eighth in the world, won two matches at the 1999 national championships aged 11.
"I wanted to break Ai-chan's record, so I'm thrilled," Ito said. "I served well and was able to do what I've been doing in practice."