[My Best Doubles Partner] Maharu YOSHIMURA: "The gold medal with Kasumi Ishikawa, the best doubles partner of my table tennis life"

Maharu YOSHIMURA

2017 World Championships Mixed Doubles gold medalist / Rio Olympic team silver medalist

The two doubles partnerships that changed my table tennis life, and my doubles philosophy

Maharu YOSHIMURA is a master of Mixed Doubles, having won three medals at the World Championships with Kasumi Ishikawa, including a gold medal, and brilliantly taking silver at the 2025 World Championships with Satsuki Odo.

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Kasumi Ishikawa is, without a doubt, the best doubles partner in my table tennis life. Thanks to Ishikawa, I was able to grow as a player, make the national team, and achieve so many results. I can’t thank her enough.

We first teamed up at the All Japan Championships in my third year of high school. There was a lot of media attention and I was extremely nervous, but that nerves helped me relax in the singles afterward, and as a result I was able to win the title.

Ishikawa had everything I didn’t. A strong mentality for competing, a sense of match play, and tactics. In Mixed Doubles, it is generally the male player who takes the lead, but in our pair Ishikawa was the one leading.