2021 All Japan National Championships

Recap
Days 1-4, which covered the Boys and Girls Junior events and the Qualifications for Men's and Women's Singles of the All Japan TT Championships, are now done. Congratulations to those who qualified for the main draw and of course to the Junior Champions Kazuki Hamada (Boys) and Satsuki Odo (Girls). Now the fun really begins with Days 5-7 covering the Main Draw of the Men's and Women's Singles events.

Schedule
Day 5- 1/15/21 Men's and Women's Singles R64, R32, and R16 10:00-18:30 JST
Day 6- 1/16/21 Men's and Women's Singles QF 11:00-16:00 JST
Day 7- 1/17/21 Men's and Women's Singles SF 10:00-12:00 JST. Finals are from 13:00-15:00 JST.

As previously mentioned, all matches will be live streamed at this link http://live.jtta.or.jp/ What's new this year is that the QF, SF and Finals will also be live streamed online. Previously, Days 6 and 7 of the All Japan TT Champs would only be available on TV through NHK and one would have to wait for the highlights to be posted on Video Sharing Sites to watch the QF, SF and Finals, but since no spectators are allowed this year, we can all watch all matches online through the link provided.

The Daily Schedule can be viewed here. https://www.japantabletennis.com/zennihon2021/live2 It's color-coded in yellow for WS matches and in Blue for MS matches. Use this link to view the schedule and table number of the match you want to view on the live stream. It may be particularly difficult to find the match you want to watch on Day 5 because there will be 16 tables with 16 simultaneous matches, so hopefully, the Daily Schedule link helps. Days 6 and 7 should not be a problem as there are only 2 tables on those days, so it should be easy to find the match you are looking for.

The Full Men's Singles Bracket (Both Qualifications and Main Draw) can be viewed here while the Simplified Men's Singles Bracket (Main Draw Only) can be viewed here.

The Full Women's Singles Bracket (Both Qualifications and Main Draw) can be viewed here while the Simplified Women's Singles Bracket (Main Draw Only) can be viewed here.

Day 5 Matches to watch out for: (Note, this list is not exhaustive. It's best to carefully check the Daily Schedule and Brackets in case there are other matches that interest you but are not listed here.)
*Only the R64 matches mentioned below are guaranteed matchups. All R32 and R16 matches mentioned here are only potential matchups since there's always a possibility that either or both players lose before reaching these further rounds.

Men's Singles R64

• Masaki Yoshida (Best 4 last year) vs Kenta Matsudaira
• Yukiya Uda vs. Sho Suzuki (Promising in Junior Boys)
• Kenta Tazoe vs Jin Ueda (Early round match-up between T-Leaguers)

Men's Singles R32*

• Kazuhiro Yoshimura vs. Satoshi Aida (T.T. Saitama Chopper who doesn't use pips)
• Maharu Yoshimura vs. Yuto Muramatsu

Men's Singles R16*

• Mizuki Oikawa (Top 5 in T-League Wins) vs. Maharu Yoshimura/Yuto Muramatsu
• Matsudaira/Yoshida/Hibiki Tazoe/Kohei Sambe vs. Oshima/Arinobu (Evenly matched 1/8. Hard to predict who will come out on top)

Women's Singles R64

• Takako Nagao vs Miyu Maeda (Early round match-up between T-Leaguers who both happen to be the left-handed doubles specialists of their respective teams. Nagao was also in the Best 4 in the 2018 Nationals.)
• Mima Ito vs. Ayane Morita (2019 All Japan University TT Champion. Notable for beating both Hayata and Jeon Jihee in the 19/20 T-League Season to upset Nissay Red Elf)- This is a revenge match for the time 12-year-old Ito beat 15-year old-Morita in the 2013 Taipei Junior Open, which was the backdrop of Ito's famous interview of speaking (or at least trying to speak Mandarin Chinese)

Women's Singles R32*

• Miyu Kato vs. Miyu Nagasaki (Early round match-up between JNT members)
• Mima Ito vs Yuka Minagawa- Minagawa beat Miwa Harimoto earlier and prevented a possible Harimoto vs Ito R32 match-up. This potential matchup would be a reunion of sorts as Ito and Minagawa are childhood friends to played together in Kansai Table Tennis Academy. There's even a short article on their friendship and some old photos of them: Photo 1 & Photo 2.

Women's Singles R16*

• Mima Ito vs Minami Ando/Kasumi Kimura- Yes, another Ito match, but she just happened to draw many notable players this tournament. Ando notably upset Ito in the 2017 Nationals. On the other hand, Kimura is the 2019 All Japan Student Selection Champion and has an impressive 4W-1L record in T-League. Those 4 Wins are against Hayata, Shan Xiaona, Yu Mengyu, and Samara with the only loss coming against Hayata in their rematch. She is on the same T-League team as Ishikawa and carried the load for the team while Ishikawa was in #RESTART such that an article was written entitled "No Kasumi Ishikawa, no problem another Kasumi takes over."
• Hina Hayata vs. Odo/Narumoto. Odo is the 2x All Japan Junior Champ. On the other hand, Narumoto has had some big wins in the 2020 WTTTC trials placing 3rd in the first screening. She beat Nagasaki in the 2nd screening and even gave Hirano a tough time. Finally, she recently beat Ishikawa in the Dec. 2020 JTTL Final Four, hence advancing over Ishikawa's team to make the finals.
• Miyuu Kihara vs Miu Hirano- Kihara's T-League performance has been impressive. She has made innovations to her service and leads in T-League Service Aces by a large margin. On the other hand, Hirano is in her first tournament back from injury and will want to prove in the Nationals that despite her injury she's still a level above the other players in Japan. Many predict the winner of this match as going to at least the SF.
• Saki Shibata vs. Miyu Kato/Miyu Nagasaki
• Sakura Mori vs. Hitomi Sato
• Kyoka Idesawa vs. Haruna Ojio

Choppers have a really hard time this year.

Hashimoto out in R1(R4).
Sato barely made it out in R1 and hopefully R2.

On the junior side, I see a big wave coming up this year, especially on the girl's side. Miwa Harimoto will have many companions/competitors. LGL was right to start the junior/hopes national team last year. Japan will likely have the youngest team primed for 2028 and 2032.

OTOH, Matsushima will likely not be another Harimoto but probably another Niwa. He's grown quite a bit during the last year but is still too short for a 13-year-old.

Where's my idol?

Hirano is out in R16
Kihara 4-0 Hirano
Hayata 4-3 Odo
Ito 4-1 Ando
Nagasaki 4-2 Shibata
Ishikawa 4-0 Miyu Maeda
Sato vs Mori withdrawn

harimoto 3 all games with a chopper

Odo was having a blast the past few days, creaming players left and right. The only time she had trouble was in the JG SF against 面田 采巳/OMODA Kotomi.

https://rallys.online/topic/alljapan/210115togami-ws4/
Poor Togami and 2 other close contacts had to withdraw because of that.

https://rallys.online/topic/alljapan...5alljapan-ws6/
Hayata indirectly confirmed Odo's performance. Saying her form was not bad despite 3 matches on her opening day, she didn't know (Odo's or her own?) serve and shot quality at first, but ultimately found her own pace. She looked forward to the match and expected to go the distance. She hopes to bring out her own game against Sato next.

https://rallys.online/topic/alljapan...5alljapan-ms6/
Harimoto says his win is purely psychological. This match against MIUCHI Kentaro was even more painful than the semifinal and final last year. He was worried about the recovery of his lower back. He feels much better now but he couldn't work on his body. After 3 matches today, the unease has been wiped away.

https://www.nikkansports.com/sports/...150000984.html


https://rallys.online/topic/alljapan...pan-udasuzuki/
Uda says he came into the match well-prepared and confident but the pressure and his opponent being a high-school student got to him the moment he stepped into the arena. His game just fell apart and became weak.

https://www.daily.co.jp/general/2021...14006522.shtml
https://www.nikkansports.com/sports/...150000984.html
https://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/ne...00029000c.html
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/sports/news/k...000/index.html
Runner-up last year, Matsushima(13 years 260 days old) fails to break Harimoto's record of youngest-ever to win the JB event at 14 years 205 days old. He played to his best in the quarterfinal against the superior and really strong 篠塚 大登/SHINOZUKA Hiroto but his level and FH were far from enough.