Tomo

It should count, why not? According to my calculations he gained 111 points at the Czech Open which means 14th place for the September ranking.

He's the next boss

The list is already published. Harimoto made it to the 13th position!! You can see the full list here: https://tabletennisworldranking.com/

The most improved players of the month (info from: https://tabletennisworldranking.com?v=stats )

Take a look at Harimoto's progression in just 3 years!

source: https://tabletennisworldranking.com/?p=123980

I missed something. He gained 129 points, I was off by 18 points. So he is ranked 13th which is amazing for his age.

Timo so close to top 5 again

I hope fzd wont be to tomo what ml is/was to fzd...
Also hopefully many great timo years to come

I think Tomo takes the ball early and attacks at the first chance he gets. What sets him apart to me is the angles he uses and the consistency that he hits both corners of the table with loop drives. In fact, he rarely uses anything but loop drives or short game. I don't tend to see him using soft, spinny loops much. I think this has to do with his close to the table style.

I feel like people say he plays quite flat, but I just think it's loop drives - still very spinny. Harimoto's got speed, spin, placement, and timing. Just fantastic.

indeed he plays flatter than most players, but still those are loop drives. it would make sense that he would utilize flatter strokes because in that way kids can still match physically stronger opponents with the speed of their shots. both his short game and his close to the table playing style are built around this and many senior players are not used to this. the problem with flatter shots is that it's harder to be consistent with them, you have to get the timing and the angle of the stroke and bat perfect, but harimoto somehow seems to be so incredibly proficient at this that it works for him.

a lot of people have been saying since the dawn of the 40+ ball that the game will develop more around speed than spin, perhaps that also plays a role in harimoto's success. although even before the switch to 40+ ball i had a feeling that flatter drives and blocks were overlooked in modern table tennis for quite some time as they can prove to be an easy way out in certain situations, harimoto is a freak of nature to be able to utilize this so well.