Teenager Ai Fukuhara and partner Ryusuke Sakamoto failed in their bid for a second straight mixed doubles title in an overwhelming defeat to Haruna Fukuoka and Takuya Adachi at the national championships on Thursday.
Ai Fukuhara returns a shot during a national table tennis championships mixed doubles match at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
Fukuhara and Aomori University student Sakamoto lost to Adachi of Meiji University and Nihon University's Fukuoka, who won their first title in an 11-8, 11-5, 13-11 victory at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
Fukuhara and Sakamoto booked their finals berth with a victory over Nahoko Ohata and Joji Yamashiro in the quarterfinals before ousting Chiharu Yamazaki and Tatsuya Ono 11-9, 11-3, 11-7 in the semifinals.
Adachi and Fukuoka beat Kazuhiro Abe of Waseda University and Megumi Abe of Aoyama Gakuin University 11-6, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9 to book their spot in the finals.
In men's singles action, 43-year-old Kiyoshi Saito, who boasts the most titles with eight, breezed past the first and second rounds to extend his victories to 93 for the most career singles wins at the nationals.
Fukuhara will make her appearance as a seeded player in the women's singles on Friday.
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