Kihara knocks out Chen Yi to reach Ljubljana last 16

Miyuu Kihara pushed Chen Yi out of WTT Star Contender Ljubljana with a four-game win that stretched past a second-set wobble and into the last 16 picture: 11-9, 11-13, 11-7, 11-8. The result closed the round of 32 on Friday night at Hala Tivoli in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and kept Kihara moving through a draw that was already starting to tilt under pressure.

The score told the story of a match Kihara had to earn. After dropping the second game 11-13, she answered immediately with an 11-7 third game and finished the job 11-8, a response that fit the version of Kihara Ljubljana has seen before. She reached the women’s singles quarterfinals at WTT Star Contender Ljubljana 2025, where Shin Yubin stopped her 3-2, and that run gave this latest win added weight: it was not a one-off spike, but another strong showing at a venue that has suited her rhythm.

That matters because Ljubljana has become one of Kihara’s most reliable stops on the tour. WTT’s own event pages place the tournament at Hala Tivoli, and the venue has now featured both her quarterfinal run in 2025 and this latest push into the knockout stages. For Kihara, the setting has become more than a backdrop. It has been a place where she has repeatedly handled the pace, conditions and tension of a deep run.

Chen brought credible form into the match. She had already beaten Zhu Yuling for the first time at WTT Finals Hong Kong 2025, and WTT’s Doha 2026 coverage pointed back to her previous meeting with Adriana Diaz in Ljubljana. Even so, Kihara’s win removed another seeded threat from a women’s draw that had already begun to shift as the second round and round of 32 played out.

The result also lands with the calendar turning quickly toward the next major stop. United States Smash 2026 is set for 26 June to 5 July at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California, with USD 1,550,000 in prize money, and the tour will carry the same top names from one pressure test to the next. Kihara’s pedigree runs deep enough to match that level: the International Table Tennis Federation recorded her as 14 years and 278 days old when she became the youngest player ever to secure two titles on the final day of an open international tournament since the ITTF World Tour began in 1996.