Thirteen-year-old Japanese table tennis wonderkid shocks Olympic bronze medallist at World Championships – and Hong Kong guaranteed a medal
Tomokazu Harimoto beats teammate and idol 4-1 on his debut in competition
Japan’s 13-year-old World Table Tennis Championships debutant Tomokazu Harimoto secured a shock 4-1 win over Rio bronze medallist Jun Mizutani on Thursday in the second round of men’s singles.
Harimoto, whose parents are from China, won the boy’s singles at the world junior championships in December for players 18 and under and his star is continuing to rise, defeating world No. 6 Mizutani 11-7, 11-6, 14-12, 7-11, 11-8.
“It’s been the happiest moment of my table tennis career,” said an excited Harimoto after beating his idol.
“It was good I managed to get on the front foot with both my serves and returns. My emotion came out in my play.”
Harimoto more than matched Mizutani’s strokes as he swung aggressively from both sides to take a 3-0 lead, and showed mental strength too by rebounding after blowing a lead to lose the fourth game, surrendering seven straight points from 7-4 up.