Eriko Hirose is a female badminton

Badminton

Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...

 player from Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. She is currently ranked thirteenth in the world as a singles player as of June 2011.

She competed at the 2005 World Badminton Championships in Anaheim. In the women's singles event she reached the third round before losing to Wang Chen of Hong Kong.

Most recently in the YONEX BWF World Championship 2010, she caused an upset over the world number one ranking player, Wang Yihan

Wang Yihan

Wang Yihan is a professional female badminton player from China and the reigning women's singles world champion. Wang started her career with her coach Wang Pengren at only nine years of age. She was selected for the junior team in 2004, and after being promoted to the senior team in 2006 she...

.

In the YONEX All-England Open Badminton Championship 2011, she came second in the women's singles, losing in the final to China's Wang Shixian.