Tomokazu Harimoto


Tomokazu Harimoto is a Japanese table tennis player.
In 2018, He won the 2018 World Junior Singles annd Team Title at the ITTF 2018 World Junior Championship for Japan. The previous players to win the title were Kenta Matsudaira, Koki Niwa and Jun Mizutani.
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. 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.

Personal life

Harimoto was born as Zhang Zhihe in Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. His father Zhang Yu and mother Zhang Ling 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.
Harimoto began playing table tennis at the age of two. 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.

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. 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

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.

Records

ITTF Major tournament performance timeline

Won; finalist; semifinalist; quarterfinalist; rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; round-robin stage; Singles Tournament; Doubles Tournament; Mixed Doubles Tournament; Team Tournament.
Senior career highlights, as of April 2018:

ITTF Career Singles Finals: 8 (5 titles, 3 runner-ups)

ITTF Career Doubles Finals: 2

Singles

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 2018. * indicates current world rank no. 1.
PlayerRankingRecordWin%Last match
Fan Zhendong*11–233%Lost at 2019 ITTF Asia Cup
Timo Boll11–233%Lost at 2018 ITTF Men's World Cup
Dimitrij Ovtcharov10-20%Lost at 2017 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals
Xu Xin10-40%Lost at 2018 ITTF Austrian Open
Ma Long11-233%Lost at 2019 Asia Cup
Zhang Jike12-0100%Won at 2018 ITTF Japan Open
Vladimir Samsonov14-0100%Won at 2018 ITTF Czech Open
Lin Gaoyuan21-233%Lost at 2019 ITTF China Open
Chuang Chih-yuan33-175%Won at 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships
Jun Mizutani42-0100%Won at 2018 ITTF Austrian Open
Koki Niwa52-250%Lost at 2019 Asian Cup
Hugo Calderano62-166%Won at 2018 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals
Wong Chun Ting62-166%Won at 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships
Lee sang-su61-150%Won at 2018 ITTF Japan Open
Marcos Freitas70-20%Lost at 2018 ITTF Czech Open
Jung Young-sik71-150%Won at 2018 World Tour Platinum Korea Open
Kenta Matsudaira90-10%Lost at 2018 ITTF World Tour Bulgarian Open
Gao Ning91-0100%Won at 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships
Liang Jingkun91-233%Won at 2019 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open
Jang Woojin102-166%Won at 2018 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals