idiotrant.com

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan's slim hopes of winning a medal at the world table tennis championships have been dashed after Ai Fukuhara made a tearful early exit.

The 20-year-old, famous for throwing temper tantrums on national television as a table tennis-playing toddler, told Japanese media on Friday her shock defeat by German veteran Elke Schall was "pathetic."

"I'm totally embarrassed," said Fukuhara, biting her lip as tears flooded down her face, after she followed her worst ever result in the women's singles by bowing out of the mixed doubles on Friday.

"It's pathetic I couldn't respond to everyone's expectations of me ... I was so desperate to win I was rushing everything. I was completely clueless. That's why I lost. I'm so upset I don't know what to say."

Fukuhara had little realistic hope of ending China's dominance at the April 28-May 5 championships but was given top billing nevertheless by Japan's star-struck media.

Once the darling of the Japanese media, Fukuhara appeared regularly on TV shows as a child where she would throw tantrums and burst into tears if she lost a point to celebrities.

Earlier this year, eight-year-old Miu Hirano eclipsed Fukuhara's record by becoming the youngest player to appear at the Japanese championships.

Chinese players are expected to clean-sweep the medals in Japan, as they have at the last two world championships and last year's Beijing Olympics.

(Reporting by Alastair Himmer; Editing by Ian Ransom)