Tomokazu Harimoto – Wikipedia

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Japanese table tennis player

Tomokazu Harimoto
Table tennis at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics – Men's Singles Gold Medal Match 020 (cropped).jpg

Harimoto at the 2018 Youth Olympics Final
Nationality Chinese (before 2014)
Japanese (after 2014)
Born Zhang Zhihe (張智和)
(2003-06-27) 27 June 2003 (age 19)
Sendai, Miyagi, Japan[1]
Playing style Right-handed, shakehand grip
Equipment(s) Butterfly Harimoto Tomokazu Innerforce ALC, Butterfly Dignics 05 (Forehand) Dignics 05 (Backhand)
Highest ranking 2 (22 Nov 2022)[2]
Current ranking 3 (20 April 2023)[3]
Club Ryukyu Asteeda,[4] TTC Neu-Ulm[5]
Height 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight 64 kg (141 lb)

Tomokazu Harimoto (張本 智和, Harimoto Tomokazu, born 27 June 2003) is a Japanese table tennis player. In 2016, 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.[6] 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.[7]

Personal life[edit]

Harimoto was born as Zhang Zhihe (simplified Chinese: 张智和; traditional Chinese: 張智和; pinyin: Zhāng Zhìhé) in Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. His father Zhang Yu (simplified Chinese: 张宇; traditional Chinese: 張宇; pinyin: Zhāng Yǔ) and mother Zhang Ling (simplified Chinese: 张凌; traditional Chinese: 張凌; pinyin: Zhāng Líng) are both former professional table tennis players from Sichuan province, China. Zhang Ling, at the peak of her career, represented China at the 43rd World Table Tennis Championships in Tianjin.[8] His younger sister Miwa Harimoto (張本 美和, Harimoto Miwa, born 16 June 2008) is also a table tennis player competing in the U-18 junior table tennis circuit.[9][10]

Harimoto began playing table tennis at the age of two.[11] He became a naturalized citizen of Japan in 2014 and legally changed his surname to Harimoto. After graduating from East Miyagi Elementary School in 2016, he relocated to Tokyo to join the JOC Elite Academy. His pastimes include baseball and reading.[12]

In April 2022, Harimoto announced he will be attending Waseda University School of Human Sciences after graduating from Nihon University Senior High School.[13]

Junior career[edit]

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.

2017[edit]

Harimoto began the year in February at the recently revamped India Open. He reached the finals with victories over Álvaro Robles, Sakai Asuka, Robert Gardos, and local favorite Sharath Kamal, before losing to defending champion Dimitrij Ovtcharov in straight sets.

2018[edit]

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.[14] 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[edit]

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.[15]

2021[edit]

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.[16]

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.[17]

Harimoto was upset by Darko Jorgic in the round of 16 of the men’s singles event at the Tokyo Olympics.[18] 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.[19] In the semi-finals, Harimoto won both his matches as the ace player against Germany, but Germany still won 3–2.[20]

Records[edit]

  • 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).[21]
  • August 2017: Youngest ever winner of an ITTF World Tour men’s singles title (14 years, 61 days).[6]
  • January 2018: Youngest ever winner of the men’s singles title at the Japanese National Championships (14 years, 207 days).[22]
  • December 2018: Youngest ever winner of an ITTF World Tour Grand Finals men’s singles title (15 years, 172 days).[23]

Major tournament performance timeline[edit]

(W) won; (F) finalist; (SF) semi-finalist; (QF) quarter-finalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1;
(S) singles event; (MD) men’s doubles event; (XD) mixed doubles event; (T) team event.

Senior career highlights, as of November 2022[25]

ITTF/WTT career finals[edit]

Singles finals: 13 (8 titles, 5 runner-ups)[edit]

Result Date Tournament Opponent Score
Runner-up February 2017 ITTF World Tour, India Open Germany Dimitrij Ovtcharov 0–4 (6–11, 8–11, 4–11, 12–14)
Win August 2017 ITTF World Tour, Czech Open Germany Timo Boll 4–2 (11–3, 4–11, 8–11, 11–9, 11–6, 11–9)
Win June 2018 ITTF World Tour, Japan Open China Zhang Jike 4–3 (9–11, 8–11, 11–9, 11–4, 10–12, 11–7, 13–11)
Win December 2018 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals China Lin Gaoyuan 4–1 (11–4, 13–15, 11–9, 11–9, 11–9)
Runner-up June 2019 ITTF World Tour, Hong Kong Open China Lin Gaoyuan 2–4 (3–11, 11–7, 11–8, 6–11, 9–11, 7–11)
Win August 2019 ITTF World Tour, Bulgaria Open China Zhao Zihao 4–2 (11–6, 12–14, 11–5, 13–11, 13–15, 11–4)
Runner-up December 2019 World Cup China Fan Zhendong 2–4 (11–9, 4–11, 11–6, 8–11, 2–11, 7–11)
Win February 2020 ITTF World Tour, Hungarian Open Japan Yukiya Uda 4–1 (7–11, 11–8, 11–2, 11–6, 11–9)
Win March 2021 WTT Star Contender Doha Germany Ruwen Filus 4–2 (11–9, 11–9, 12–14, 11–5, 7–11, 11–8)
Runner-up December 2021 WTT Cup Finals China Fan Zhendong 1–4 (8–11, 11–9, 9–11, 7–11, 5–11)
Win July 2022 WTT Champions European Summer Series China Lin Gaoyuan 4–3 (3–11, 7–11, 12–14, 11–6, 11–6, 13–11, 11–9)
Runner-up October 2022 WTT Cup Finals China Wang Chuqin 2–4 (11–8, 8–11, 9–11, 8–11, 11–8, 7–11)
Win November 2022 Asian Cup South Korea Lim Jong-hoon 4–1 (11–9, 7–11, 11–8, 12–10, 11–2)

Men’s doubles finals: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)[edit]

Result Date Tournament Partner Opponents Score
Runner-up June 2017 ITTF World Tour Platinum,
China Open 		Japan Yuto Kizukuri Japan Jin Ueda
Japan Maharu Yoshimura 		1–3
(10–12, 11–9, 8–11, 9–11)
Runner-up November 2017 ITTF World Tour Platinum,
German Open 		Japan Yuto Kizukuri South Korea Jung Young-sik
South Korea Lee Sang-su 		2–3
(11–8, 11–3, 5–11, 14–16, 6–11)
Win August 2022 WTT Contender Tunis Japan Yuto Kizukuri China Zhao Zihao
China Xue Fei 		3–2
(11–4, 8–11, 7–11, 11–9, 11–6)

Mixed doubles finals: 6 (3 titles, 3 runner-ups)[edit]

Result Date Tournament Partner Opponents Score
Runner-up June 2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum,
Japan Open 		Japan Hina Hayata China Xu Xin
China Zhu Yuling 		0–3
(10–12, 6–11, 5–11)
Win November 2019 ITTF World Tour Platinum,
Austrian Open 		Japan Hina Hayata China Lin Gaoyuan
China Zhu Yuling 		3–1
(11–5, 4–11, 11–5, 11–6)
Runner-up November 2021 World Championships Japan Hina Hayata China Wang Chuqin
China Sun Yingsha 		0–3
(2–11, 5–11, 8–11)
Win June 2022 WTT Contender Zagreb Japan Hina Hayata Hong Kong Wong Chun Ting
Hong Kong Doo Hoi Kem 		3–0
(11–7, 11–5, 11–5)
Runner-up July 2022 WTT Star Contender
European Summer Series 		Japan Hina Hayata China Wang Chuqin
China Wang Manyu 		2–3
(11–9, 11–6, 7–11, 7–11, 9–11)
Win August 2022 WTT Contender Tunis Japan Miwa Harimoto Chinese Taipei Feng Yi-hsin
Chinese Taipei Chen Szu-yu 		3–2
(9–11, 11–8, 9–11, 12–10, 11–6)

Record against top-10 players[edit]

Harimoto’s singles match record against those who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who have been No. 1 in bold:

Statistics correct as of 9 October 2022. * indicates current world rank no. 1.

References[edit]

External links[edit]