Tomokazu Harimoto

Tomokazu Harimoto (Japanese: 张本智和; Chinese: 张智和; pinyin: Harimōto Tomōkazu; born 27 June 2003 in Sendai) is a male Japanese table tennis player of Chinese origin.

Harimoto Tomokazu

Nicknames	Tomo
Clubs	Japan TTC
Characteristics
Team members	Japan
Type	attacker
World Championships	Quarterfinal (2017), Team (2018)

Career

Harimoto started to play table tennis with two years- that time at home at a kitchen table. In 2014 he came to the third round at the Japanese National Championships. At the Japan Open he began to play international. He was on position 826 in the world. At the Safir Open 2015 in Örebro he beat two top-100-players and came under the top 100 in the world. So he was the youngest player ever that came to the main round. At the Polish Open he met Ma Long and lost 0:4 to him. 2016 he took part in the Youth-World Championships, where he won gold in the singles and with the team, too. So Harimoto came under the top 60 in the world. At the Slovenian Open Tomokazu was the youngest player again, who reached the Quarterfinals in the singles. Also he won the Japan Open in the singles and became so youngest player ever who wins a World Tour event. In the U-18 world ranking system he became number one. One year later he reached the final again but lost to Dimitrij Ovtcharov. At the World Championships he was the youngest player who reached the Quarterfinals at a WTTC, in the world rankings for adults he became place 20. At the Czech Open he won his first World Tour event- in the final he beat the German table tennis star Timo Boll and got another record. 2018 he beat Jun Mizutani (his teammate) and won so the Japanese National Championships for the first time. After participation at the WTTTC 2018, he came to the top 10.

Results

Singles

• Czech Open: 2017 Gold
• Youth- WTTC: Gold 2016
• Japan Open: Gold 2016
• Japanese National Championships: Gold 2018
• World Championships: Quarterfinals 2017

Team

• World Championships: Quarterfinals 2018
• World Team Cup: Silver 2018
• Youth- WTTC: Gold 2016

Results from the ITTF-databank

Association	Competition	Year	City	Country	Singles	Doubles	Mixed	Team
JPN	Asian Cup	2018	Yokohama	JPN	5th place
JPN	Youth-WTTC	2016	Kapstadt	RSA	Gold	Silver		Gold
JPN	World Championships	2017	Düsseldorf	GER	Quarterfinals
JPN	World Championships	2018	Halmstad	SWE				Quarterfinals
JPN	Asian Championships	2017	Wuxi	CHN	last 32			Semifinals
JPN	World Tour Grand Finals	2017	Astana	KAZ	Quarterfinals	Quarterfinals
JPN	World Tour (Japan Open)	2016	Tokio	JPN	Qual.			Gold

Family and Chinese origin

Harimotos parents were table tennis players from China. In 1998 they came to Japan and worked there as table tennis coaches. Harimoto came 2003 in Japan under the name Zhang Zhihe to the world. But he does have the Japanese citizenship he got the name Tomokazu Harimoto.