United States (US) Smash 2026, Los Angeles, California, USA 26 Jun - 5 Jul 2026

[Matteones]

Mizutani is likely the greatest Japanese male player in table tennis history and his achievements as a prodigy are not going to be matched by Togami anytime soon unless time travel becomes a possibility. The benefit for players like Togami is that they can show there is another route, which isn't to be not a prodigy at all, but maybe to be less complete as a child but to build out skillsets later and work hard and get closer to the top in older age, whether that can catch up with those who got earlier success is an open question for some, but as Hayata has shown, it is clearly possible.

So by all means, if we assume you are interpreting Mizutani correctly, Mizutani can pronounce judgment from his throne, but that has no bearing on the struggles of everyday players. We can all make predictions, but Harimoto himself for all his early promise has no guarantee of winning any major titles.

It rubs on me that Mizutani may be considered the greatest Japanese male player.

His record with the whole Chinese A and B teams of his time was absolutely disastrous: never won with the likes of Ma Long, Zhang Jike, Xu Xin, Fan Zhendong, Chen Qi, Hao Shuai, Lin Gaoyuan, Yan An, Fang Bo, had only one win and many many losses with Wang Liqin, Ma Lin, Wang Hao (who were the previous generation of players.
We are talking 3 wins and something like 70 losses with multiple players of multiple generations.
He is losing on H2H also with Timo Boll, Joo Se Hyuk, Ruwen Filus.
He was a high level player no doubt, and extremely fun to watch, but that's pretty much it, I would say, as for playing level relative to his time, Harimoto became better than him many years ago.

 

[dewnyc]

where is Table 1 officially being shown in US? fanduel/espn?

ESPN+. If you have ESPN Unlimited, that might also work.

 

[NextLevel]

It rubs on me that Mizutani may be considered the greatest Japanese male player.

His record with the whole Chinese A and B teams of his time was absolutely disastrous: never won with the likes of Ma Long, Zhang Jike, Xu Xin, Fan Zhendong, Chen Qi, Hao Shuai, Lin Gaoyuan, Yan An, Fang Bo, had only one win and many many losses with Wang Liqin, Ma Lin, Wang Hao (who were the previous generation of players.
We are talking 3 wins and something like 70 losses with multiple players of multiple generations.
He is losing on H2H also with Timo Boll, Joo Se Hyuk, Ruwen Filus.
He was a high level player no doubt, and extremely fun to watch, but that's pretty much it, I would say, as for playing level relative to his time, Harimoto became better than him many years ago.

First point - Mizutani faced the greatest generations in their prime. Despite that, he still has notable victories in important matches over lots of players (Xu Xin at Olympics 2016 in Teams, Dima in 2016 Teams). Like all players his competitiveness with the Chinese got better with thr introduction of the plastic ball. But just about no one was beating these players when Mizutani was playing especially in thr 40mm ball era.

Second point - Mizutani has Olympic medals in singles (bronze 2016), mixed doubles (gold 2020) and teams (silver 2016, bronze 2020),. These are performances that Harimoto has largely been unable to match. Obviously Harimoto has the future ahead but had Mizutani not had his career cut short, there was some evidence that he still had a lot in the tank.

Finally there are other results (domination of national singles championships, this is a serious event in Japan and he won it at least 10 times) which speak to his consistency and greatness in Japan. He also had very strong results playing for Orenburg and being the hardest player to beat on a super team with Dima and Samsonov is not something one should just dismiss.

That said, I am completely okay with anyone making head to head and statistical arguments for Harimoto and even Matsushima. But so far, for the Olympics, all Harimoto's medals were won with Mizutani on the squad as well. Just saying. Harimoto's WTTTC medals, only the recent silver is a level above what Mizutani got. Yes Harimoto is more competitive with thr top Chinese but everyone is now.

So yes, I get your point. Let's see the hardware that Harimoto needs to make your point valid.

 

[Matteones]

First point - Mizutani faced the greatest generations in their prime. Despite that, he still has notable victories in important matches over lots of players (Xu Xin at Olympics 2016 in Teams, Dima in 2016 Teams). Like all players his competitiveness with the Chinese got better with thr introduction of the plastic ball. But just about no one was beating these players when Mizutani was playing especially in thr 40mm ball era.

Second point - Mizutani has Olympic medals in singles (bronze 2016), mixed doubles (gold 2020) and teams (silver 2016, bronze 2020),. These are performances that Harimoto has largely been unable to match. Obviously Harimoto has the future ahead but had Mizutani not had his career cut short, there was some evidence that he still had a lot in the tank.

Finally there are other results (domination of national singles championships, this is a serious event in Japan and he won it at least 10 times) which speak to his consistency and greatness in Japan. He also had very strong results playing for Orenburg and being the hardest player to beat on a super team with Dima and Samsonov is not something one should just dismiss.

That said, I am completely okay with anyone making head to head and statistical arguments for Harimoto and even Matsushima. But so far, for the Olympics, all Harimoto's medals were won with Mizutani on the squad as well. Just saying. Harimoto's WTTTC medals, only the recent silver is a level above what Mizutani got. Yes Harimoto is more competitive with thr top Chinese but everyone is now.

So yes, I get your point. Let's see the hardware that Harimoto needs to make your point valid.

I concede that he has more hardware, but I would only count individual hardware, I understand a gold medal in the olympics is important, but mixed doubles is just a different sport, and it's not individual.
Hopefully Harimoto or Matsushima will overcome him in hardware too, but in playing level related to his time, I think he was already overcome by Harimoto (A solid top 10 - Mizutani vs a solid top 5 - Harimoto).

 

[NextLevel]

I concede that he has more hardware, but I would only count individual hardware, I understand a gold medal in the olympics is important, but mixed doubles is just a different sport, and it's not individual.
Hopefully Harimoto or Matsushima will overcome him in hardware too, but in playing level related to his time, I think he was already overcome by Harimoto (A solid top 10 - Mizutani vs a solid top 5 - Harimoto).

Your thrust is fair, and I have conceded most of it, but a few more points in Mizutani's defense.

Impact is not just measured by "objective" results, but by overall influence. Arguably, the XD gold influences Mizutani's aura in Japanese commentary more than any other single result, though of course, I have listed some of the others.

The things about changing times and technologies when compared using statistical metrics is that many nuances are easy to miss. Is this WTT era easier or harder to be a top 5 player in than in prior times? Plastic ball? Playing so many events that the Chinese skip quite a few of them? Elo ranking vs Tour points? Were other countries like Korea and Germany not stronger back then even if unable to battle China? It isn't entirely apples to apples. Mizutani was virtually impossible to beat by players below a certain level. Even Harimoto was not that consistent, though he might be growing into it.

Sure, even Mizutani has respect for Harimoto as a better player (after all, Harimoto beat him at the age of 13, both domestically and in the WTTC in 2017 where Harimoto made the quarters). My main point, even if overstated in the absence of complete careers from Harimoto etc., was to give Mizutani his flowers and put into perspective his criticism of players like Togami.

 

[v100ev]

10 hours time difference is one thing (and it's not like we can do anything about it)..
But 2 minutes "Highlights" is just absurd!

 

[backspacer]

10 hours time difference is one thing (and it's not like we can do anything about it)..
But 2 minutes "Highlights" is just absurd!

And the extended highlights still don't feature every point.

 

[xeNTric]

In the match between Lin Yun-Ju and Kuo Guan-Hong, there were coaches in the corner (LYJ's was visible from the regular camera angle at least, so I'm assuming KGH's was there also...), even though they're both Chinese Taipei, which is uncommon. Any insights into this?

 

[NextLevel]

In the match between Lin Yun-Ju and Kuo Guan-Hong, there were coaches in the corner (LYJ's was visible from the regular camera angle at least, so I'm assuming KGH's was there also...), even though they're both Chinese Taipei, which is uncommon. Any insights into this?

So the rule about not having coaches is largely other countries mimicking China who installed the policy in order to reduce national team cohesion issues. It is not against the rules to have personal coaches when playing compatriots. If you have personal coaches that are not national coaches or different national coachss, I think players should be free to use them.

I personally have found the policy to inordinately hurt the winning chances of talented but inexperienced juniors. I think that without his coach, Kuo would have struggled much more dealing with Lin Yun Ju's tactical experience. I think players like Fan Zhendong and even the younger Ma Long would have benefited when playing older Ma Long and Wang Hao respectively if they had coaches in the international matches.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Kudos to Sally and Jishan for beating a good Singapore team

 

[kindof99]

I concede that he has more hardware, but I would only count individual hardware, I understand a gold medal in the olympics is important, but mixed doubles is just a different sport, and it's not individual.
Hopefully Harimoto or Matsushima will overcome him in hardware too, but in playing level related to his time, I think he was already overcome by Harimoto (A solid top 10 - Mizutani vs a solid top 5 - Harimoto).

Harimoto was really good when he started. But for so many years, he has not really achieved much in big tournaments, and I think it will get harder when he ages.

Mizutani gained most fames among modern japanese table tennis, although I will not keep citing what he said.

 

[enj]

2 min highlights is bulshit

Terrible!

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Harimoto was really good when he started. But for so many years, he has not really achieved much in big tournaments, and I think it will get harder when he ages.

Mizutani gained most fames among modern japanese table tennis, although I will not keep citing what he said.

I beg to differ. He won the grand finals , and beat the Chinese in the big stage like the double win against FZD and WCQ at WTTTC.

From here it’s difficult given the level of competition but when at his best he has a chance to do it again

 

[zeio]

I beg to differ. He won the grand finals , and beat the Chinese in the big stage like the double win against FZD and WCQ at WTTTC.

From here it’s difficult given the level of competition but when at his best he has a chance to do it again

Well, some members here sound like TensorBackhand and those Chinese fangirls who only care about medals and know nothing else other than results.

It's not just Mizutani who has defended (as well as criticized) Harimoto but also Hao Shuai. Even some of the former HKG players and coaches hold the same view.

 

[allencorn]

Any idea how the cool international doubles teams get created? Is it just individual players asking one another to be a team, or are their national organizations arranging some pairings? Some the pairings are great and fun to watch.

 

[golden_son]

2 min highlights is bulshit

I actually disagree. I don't think they should be the only recap videos uploaded, but for folks (like me) who can't watch most of the matches for some reason or other I found it very convenient to be able to catch snippets of most of the matches in a condensed format. If they were only the 7-10 minute highlights, I would have watched fewer of them, and skipped some of the lesser-known player matchups and doubles. If a match seemed particularly exciting I can go look for the longer highlights or full match upload.

WTT apparently knows that attention spans have shrunk in the digital age; I believe the average length of time you have to hold someone's attention is around 90 seconds, so these are formatted to capitalize on how most people consume content these days. As long as it's part of a broader variety of formats and not the sole output, I'm fine with it.

 

[zeio]

Any idea how the cool international doubles teams get created? Is it just individual players asking one another to be a team, or are their national organizations arranging some pairings? Some the pairings are great and fun to watch.

For the HKG/KOR pair, KNY invited Baldwin last year...

WTT新加坡大滿貫｜受女方邀請合作混雙 陳顥樺不排除以後WTT賽再組「港韓組合」
https://www.stheadline.com/realtime-sport/3547901/

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

fun matchup to start the day with alexis and anton

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Miyu Nagasaki upset by Huang Yu-Jie 3-1.

 

[zeio]

WS R64
Nagasaki 1-3 Huang Yu-Jie (Q) (6, -9, -11, -11)
G1 93, 116
G3 95, 98 TO for Nagasaki, 99, 109, 1010, 1110, 1113
G4 108, 1011, 1111, 1113

Nakazawa has a big part in the loss, calling the TO so late, and no obvious change after it.