Ai Fukuhara (福原爱),the Japanese table tennis star, was born on Nov.11, 1988. She started playing
ping-pong when she was three. At that time, she was too small. She couldn't see over the tabletop (桌面). She had to stand on boxes to play against adults (成人) in exhibition (展览) matches.
    Now she is a very famous player. But she still works very hard and she practices for five hours a day
during the week after morning school lessons and eight hours a day at the weekend.
    In May 2003, Fukuhara made the quarterfinals  (四分之一决赛)  of the World  Championships.
    At the age of 15, she was the youngest player for Japan at the 2004 Olympic Games. She joined the
Liaoning Club in 2005."I hope I can l earn from my  Chinese teammates and  improve (改善) my
preparation for the 2008 Olympics."said Ai Fukuhara.