Where will Tomokazu Harimoto be in 5 years from now?

Table Tennis Reborn · Feb 22, 2017

The question on my mind now is, where will Harimoto be in 5 years time? He is only 13 years old at the moment and reaching the finals of strong World Tours which is crazy!

Can he become world number 1? The Japanese all start out very strong, look at Koki Niwa and Kenta Matsudaira, both really strong when they first sprung on the scene. Will Harimoto stagnate like other team mates or can he go all the way?

I remember Japan's number 1 player Jun Mizutani had a problem finding high quality practice and said how he cannot compete with the Chinese as he doesn't practice against them or of that level. Young Chinese players will be aiming for Ma Long, Zhang JIke and Fan Zhendong in the training hall. Who does Harimoto look up to in the training hall?

I think another problem with the Japanese team is that they don't hit the ball as hard as the Chinese. However I think Harimoto hits the ball well and can go really far.

What are your thoughts? Time will tell...

TT_Rogue · Feb 22, 2017

Mh questionable if he even has a future in table tennis. I mean for how many child-stars was the fame too much and they went crazy or something? With 13 everything can happen. Perhpas next year he's meeting a girl and will say fck table tennis. Maybe he will be injured because he started already in this young age to stress his joints in this extrem way. Maybe his body will give up because it can't take the steroids anymore and he has to do a break, or at least a break from the roids and can't keep his from anymore. Perhaps he will stay super ambitious and become a top player who can challenge the chinese who knows

.

TTHopeful · Feb 22, 2017

Anyone got some background on his parents? How good was his father?

Mima Ito has slowed down her rate of improvement?

Takkyu_wa_inochi · Feb 22, 2017

@TT Reborn
Of course, there is a lot of uncertainty about Harimoto's future. But there are some good hints that he could THE ONE. His unique precocity, his pedigree, his athleticism. I think he's much better than Kenta or Niwa who were 14 when they played the big competitions.

@TThopeful

I don't believe Mima ITO will go higher. She will stay petite, and i think she will always be lacking power, her BH is fantastic but her FH is not good enough and she is stagnating.

I'm not sure at all she will be in the JNT in Tokyo Olympics, Hirano and Ishikawa seem well above now. For the last spot there are too many potential contenders, Kato, Hayata, Sato, Hashimoto, Hamamoto (?) to name a few of them.

laistrogian · Feb 22, 2017

It's hard to say. I personally think he shouldn't be playing as many tournaments as he's playing right now. There are certain experience that you can only get in a real tournament but he's still 13. IMO he should've spend more time in japan or china practicing until he's 16 or 17

The kid definitely has talent given his level of play at 13 years old but the bigger question is can he fill the gap that mizutani is going to leave in the coming years? Ofc he can end up at niwa and matsudaira's level but their level can't bring big titles home

Baal · Feb 22, 2017

Japan.

Xylit · Feb 22, 2017

He lost against Ricardo Walther at Qatar Open today with 3-4.

ttmonster · Feb 22, 2017

He looks to be physically stronger than Niwa and he plays a different game so he is definitely not going to end up as Niwa, as long as he protects his body from injuries. I think the key is for him to find suitable practice partners to take his game to the next level and do so without going to China. Yes he should not play too many tournaments right away, but his goal is to win in 2020 , which even though a stretch goal is going to be difficult to even achieve if he does not start playing world tours regularly , so I think the right question is whether its right for him to target 2020 olympics.
The other curious thing I have noticed with him is that he does lose to player in his age group so he is still not able to dominate his age group in a way that convinces us that his game is complete, so definitely there are some holes that he needs to fix , playing world tours or playing levels above him might or might not help him discover those roles ...
but to answer the original question, he would be in the top 20 in the world for sure ..

sanavasaraja · Feb 23, 2017

He also seems to be somewhat of a player who is dependant on his form, meaning he can play insanely well on a good day, not so much on another. He seems like a very emotional player, hence probably also the screaming from time to time.

I think in order to be one of the very top guys you have to deliver almost every time like a swiss clock.
Would definitely be awesome to see more than one red dot on white background in the top10.

I dont think he will ever make the #1 spot as long as there are the Wang Chuqins and Fan Zhendongs of this world... Top 10, maybe top 5 even, why not? I just hope he doesnt rest on his talent but keeps training his ass off throughout the years to come

ttpshot · Feb 23, 2017

TTHopeful said:
Anyone got some background on his parents? How good was his father?

Mima Ito has slowed down her rate of improvement?

From what I read, his father has beaten Kong Linghui in the official match, his mother was a member of CNT at '95 WTTC. So pedigree wise, it'd be hard to find anything better.

TTFrenzy · Feb 23, 2017

The answer is always simple. We will see! fans have the tendency of exaggerating everytime a new talent appears and performs well, I guess its because we are so bored that the chinese are whooping everyone for the past 17 years that we are desperately looking for a new messiah to come along and crush the CNT

Baum was world junior champion in 2005 beating mizutani. Baum was "baptized" the next timo boll. We all saw how that ended!

Then mizutani had some good results in 2008 olympics and after and everyone was hoping he would be top notch "when he learns to be more aggressive and stay close to the table". Dont wanna sound harsh but it took mizu and the whole JNT 8 f00king years , for us to see mizu actually playing and competing with the chinese close to the table. We all saw how that ended!

Then dima came along whooping ZJK's ass in 2009 danish open and beating wang hao in 2010. I remember tons of people in Youtube criticizing ZJK's poor technique/attitude and that he was going to end up being a clone/sparring partner in the CNT. Oh and wang hao was eternal number two, too scared to be world champion. 2009 wang hao wins 2011 zjk wins

We all saw how that ended!

What? you want more? matsudaira vs ma lin in 2009,koki niwa,lee sang su vs ma long , kishikawa beating boll in 2010,quentin robinot beating ma lin in 2011 if I remember correctly and many people went nuts about their future potential. Guess what ! We all saw how that ended!!

CNT are so damn competitive that I could even put Fang bo and Yan an in the "we all saw" category. They were gold and silver in WJTTC in 2009. Fang bo was proclaimed as the next ma long and yan an was a beast close to the table. Yet they are still struggling to solidify their position inside the CNT .

Anyway, harimoto seems to have great fighting spirit and gets better really fast . My impression is that he has good overall understanding of the game, he seemed to get better and better DURING the game against dima which is a rare skill (most players need to analyze the situation with video/psychological analysis AFTER the game). We have definitely not seen a talent like him at this age, I think only samsonov,waldner & boll made a blast at the world tt being little kids.

Hope to see him world champion or at least world cup winner against a chinese

laistrogian · Feb 23, 2017

TTFrenzy said:
The answer is always simple. We will see! fans have the tendency of exaggerating everytime a new talent appears and performs well, I guess its because we are so bored that the chinese are whooping everyone for the past 17 years that we are desperately looking for a new messiah to come along and crush the CNT

Baum was world junior champion in 2005 beating mizutani. Baum was "baptized" the next timo boll. We all saw how that ended!

Then mizutani had some good results in 2008 olympics and after and everyone was hoping he would be top notch "when he learns to be more aggressive and stay close to the table". Dont wanna sound harsh but it took mizu and the whole JNT 8 f00king years , for us to see mizu actually playing and competing with the chinese close to the table. We all saw how that ended!

Then dima came along whooping ZJK's ass in 2009 danish open and beating wang hao in 2010. I remember tons of people in Youtube criticizing ZJK's poor technique/attitude and that he was going to end up being a clone/sparring partner in the CNT. Oh and wang hao was eternal number two, too scared to be world champion. 2009 wang hao wins 2011 zjk wins

We all saw how that ended!

What? you want more? matsudaira vs ma lin in 2009,koki niwa,lee sang su vs ma long , kishikawa beating boll in 2010,quentin robinot beating ma lin in 2011 if I remember correctly and many people went nuts about their future potential. Guess what ! We all saw how that ended!!

CNT are so damn competitive that I could even put Fang bo and Yan an in the "we all saw" category. They were gold and silver in WJTTC in 2009. Fang bo was proclaimed as the next ma long and yan an was a beast close to the table. Yet they are still struggling to solidify their position inside the CNT .

Anyway, harimoto seems to have great fighting spirit and gets better really fast . My impression is that he has good overall understanding of the game, he seemed to get better and better DURING the game against dima which is a rare skill (most players need to analyze the situation with video/psychological analysis AFTER the game). We have definitely not seen a talent like him at this age, I think only samsonov,waldner & boll made a blast at the world tt being little kids.

Hope to see him world champion or at least world cup winner against a chinese

The sad thing about fang bo is that he doesn't have the footwork of RSM or the power of WLQ. I personally enjoy watching fang bo play more than anyone in the CNT

Der_Echte · Feb 23, 2017

What will he end up in 5 years ... ???????????

Hopefully not like this...

... or THIS ...

... or this ....

Where will Tomokazu Harimoto be in 5 years from now?

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