Tomokazu Harimoto (張本 智和, Harimoto Tomokazu, born 27 June 2003) is a Japanese professional table tennis player who is currently world rank number 3 in ITTF. Born to Chinese parents, he became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 2014.[8] He won the world junior singles and team title at the 2016 World Junior Table Tennis Championships for Japan.
In August 2017, he became the youngest ever winner of an ITTF World Tour men's singles title, winning the Czech Open title at the age of 14 years and 61 days.[9] In December 2018, he became the youngest player to win the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals at the age of 15 years and 172 days.[10]
Harimoto began playing table tennis at the age of two.[15] To compete in the All Japan Championships, he needed Japanese nationality. Consequently, his father and sister chose to become Japanese citizens as well.[16] While in the fourth grade, he was naturalized as a Japanese citizen in 2014 and legally changed his surname to Harimoto.[17]
In April 2022, Harimoto announced he will be attending Waseda University School of Human Sciences after graduating from Nihon University Senior High School.[18]
Career
Junior career
Harimoto first won the All-Japan Table Tennis Championships Juniors title in 2010 as a first grader. He would continue to win the tournament for all 6 years of his elementary school years. In 2015, he was chosen to represent Japan at the World Junior Table Tennis Championships in France, becoming the youngest Japanese player to be chosen. However, due to the November 2015 Paris attacks, Harimoto was not able to participate in the tournament.
Aged 12 years and 355 days, Harimoto defeated seasoned professionals Ho Kwan Kit, Hugo Calderano, and teammate Kohei Sambe to win the 2016 U-21 Japan Open title. With the win, he became the youngest winner ITTF World Tour under-21 men's singles title.[1] Later that year, Harimoto won gold medals in the boys' singles and teams events at the World Junior Table Tennis Championships in Cape Town, South Africa. This win was historic, as Harimoto became the youngest winner of the World Junior Championships aged 13 years and 163 days. Harimoto achieved an Under-21 ranking of No. 10 in the world in December 2016.
In June of 2018, Harimoto shocked the world by winning first place in the ITTF World Tour Japan Open, after beating Olympic champions Ma Long in the semifinal and Zhang Jike in the final.[19] He was just short of 15 years old when he won the title. Later in the year, Harimoto continued to win the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in Incheon, South Korea, where he defeated Lin Gaoyuan 4-1 in the final and became the youngest-ever winner of the event. His outstanding performance in 2018 also helped him reach No.3 in the ITTF world ranking, his career best.
2020
Harimoto won third place at the 2020 World Cup. Harimoto led 3–1 against Ma Long in the semi-finals, but lost 4–3 after Ma Long called time-out in the fifth game and switched to a high-toss serve that Harimoto had trouble reading.[20]
2021
In March, Harimoto played in WTT Doha. He was upset in the semi-finals by Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the WTT Contender event, but won the champion for the WTT Star Contender event.[21]
In June, teammate Jun Mizutani said that Harimoto's mental game was steadily improving in 2021 and better than the previous year. Mizutani also positively noted that Harimoto was reverting to his more aggressive style of play in 2021.[22]
Harimoto was upset by Darko Jorgic in the round of 16 of the men's singles event at the Tokyo Olympics.[23] Originally slated to be the ace player in the team event, Harimoto ended up playing in doubles in Japan's 3–1 victory against Sweden in the quarter-finals.[24] In the semi-finals, Harimoto won both his matches as the ace player against Germany, but Germany still won 3–2.[25]
Records
June 2016: Youngest ever winner of an ITTF World Tour under-21 men's singles title (12 years, 355 days).[1]
December 2016: Youngest ever winner of the boys' singles title at the World Junior Championships (13 years, 163 days).[26]
August 2017: Youngest ever winner of an ITTF World Tour men's singles title (14 years, 61 days).[9]
January 2018: Youngest ever winner of the men's singles title at the Japanese National Championships (14 years, 207 days).[27]
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