2024 WTT Contender Zagreb, Croatia June 3-9

[NextLevel]

Togami was braver at the end. He went all out after being behind. To be fair, this was Harimoto's 3rd match of the day.

The match showed a lot of progress in Harimoto's game but it was a lot to ask of him to play all these matches and against an opponent who knows him so well and is just the better athlete. Harimoto still doesn't have the level of athletic aggression to take on such high risk high reward players and that is what he needs in his game. I wanted to see how Harimoto's game would look vs Alexis who is like Togami but not someone Harimoto is familiar with and who I believe Harimoto has never beaten but Togami will have to do.

 

[NextLevel]

There were some pushes from Togami that Harimoto could have gone for when he was up 8-4, but he didn't and Togami always went on the attack first putting him at a disadvantage. But that serve and 3rd ball attack from Togami at 10-10 was beautiful.

Yeah. To wait until 10‐9 to put it on your backhand and then do it against a ball that risky was just clearly him trying to take risk but he just didn't have it.

 

[backspacer]

Yeah. To wait until 10‐9 to put it on your backhand and then do it against a ball that risky was just clearly him trying to take risk but he just didn't have it.

And when he had game points in game 1 and 2 he got passive and tried to keep the game short, but that wasn't working. Sometimes I wonder how these matches would go if they had coaches on their bench.

 

[zeio]

Harimoto actually did the right thing there, learning from his painful lesson against LJK at WTTC 2023. When it gets really tight, those loopkills wouldn't be so easy to execute for Togami, even more so at Paris 2024.

Like Hirano, Harimoto played with a set of rules here, trying out certain tactics, whereas Hayata and Togami played like they normally do, relying on brute force.

 

[NextLevel]

Harimoto actually did the right thing there, learning from his painful lesson against LJK at WTTC 2023. When it gets really tight, those loopkills wouldn't be so easy to execute for Togami, even more so at Paris 2024.

Like Hirano, Harimoto played with a set of rules here, trying out certain tactics, whereas Hayata and Togami played like they normally do, relying on brute force.

These are opponents they know and balls they are familiar with. They are supposed to take those risks. Making it about Paris is wrong IMHO, this particular match is the focus, they can work on Paris 2024 against other less familiar opponents.

 

[zeio]

Feel free to check out the recent interviews, namely those with Spread that I posted in the big thread. The way they answered similar questions reveals a lot of difference in their thought process and priorities ahead of Paris 2024.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

WR#9 Szocs and and WR#10 Ito won't get any ranking boost from this tournament because their current lows are larger than any gain they would received. However, Miu Hirano's SF finish should put her just above Szocs so she should be WR#9 and Szocs WR#10 in the next rankings update. It's been a long time coming, but it's a well deserved entry back into the top 10 for Hirano. That also makes it such that Japan's 3 female Paris Olympians are all in the top 10.

 

[Peter93]

The French team's outfits are sponsored by Victas. Same with the Japanese male team. That's why you don't see Harimoto in a Butterfly outfit. Why Gauzy was wearing his andro stuff when he played doubles with Lebrun earlier I can't tell you. I don't know if there are sponsor mandates or if it's just up to players.

The JTTA is actually changing this rule (below translated from World TT):

At the Japan Table Tennis Association's board meeting on June 8, it was announced that Tamasu (Butterfly) will be the official supplier of the Japanese national team uniforms from 2025. At the same time, it was approved that Japanese national team players who are not dispatched by the association will be able to wear their own uniforms from April 2025. However, this will be excluded from the "WTT Smash", "WTT Champions" and "WTT Finals".

Until now, even when participating in the WTT at their own expense, players were required to wear the official Japanese national team uniform, but players have expressed a desire to "wear uniforms with personal sponsor names on them if they are not sent by their association." Overseas, many association players have already participated in the WTT wearing their personal uniforms, but in Japan, "personal uniforms will be OK" from April next year.

 

[fore.n.back]

Harimoto actually did the right thing there, learning from his painful lesson against LJK at WTTC 2023. When it gets really tight, those loopkills wouldn't be so easy to execute for Togami, even more so at Paris 2024.

Like Hirano, Harimoto played with a set of rules here, trying out certain tactics, whereas Hayata and Togami played like they normally do, relying on brute force.

Yeah, I also felt Harimoto doesn't look for a win this time, maybe he wants to opt out to take a rest rather than pulling another final against Lebrun
This's the first time I saw Togami losing all the forehand exchanges, Harimoto was able to create arcs and adding sidespin to widen the angle. Togami can only fight from the bh corner to the middle of the table (somehow his fh from the pivot position was more deadly)

 

[FIXPOINT]

 

[FIXPOINT]

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

If there was any doubt about who the queen of Japanese women's TT is: Hina 4-0 Miwa following the same score at the 2024 All Japan. Super Hina > Super Miwa for now.

 

[NextLevel]

If there was any doubt about who the queen of Japanese women's TT is: Hina 4-0 Miwa following the same score at the 2024 All Japan. Super Hina > Super Miwa for now.

I think it is easy to underestimate Hina's rallying ability when you focus on her scores against CNT and forget about just how hard it is for her to miss when she is on fire.

 

[turbozed]

These rallies Togami and Alexis are having are insane. Lot of high speed highlight moments so far!

 

[NextLevel]

These rallies Togami and Alexis are having are insane. Lot of high speed highlight moments so far!

Two great athletes but one just has a far better understanding of creativity and variation.

 

[NextLevel]

Just by taking a small step back and not making Alexis feel like he is playing Felix, Togami might have enough to make a change here.

 

[turbozed]

This is the perfect match to show to those people commenting on Youtube and Instagram asking "why doesn't the guy just hit it softly while the other guy is so far away from the table?"

 

[Dr Evil]

Short push won that for Alexis. Great touch.

 

[backspacer]

Togami should practice those side topspin shots to widen the angle. His brute force style did not work against Alexis.

 

[FIXPOINT]