Will Miwa Harimoto surpass her brother?

hong-pong · Aug 28, 2022

Even though Tomo's achievements at her age are still unmatched, I feel that Miwa's game has a sense of stability that her brother is still looking to find. Her forehand and backhand are both superb for a professional, never mind her age. However, a lot of people also think that since she has "exposed herself" at such a young age, the Chinese are going to deal with her the same way they deal with other foreign threats- analysis over and over again. We saw this happen to Hirano and also to Ito, who defeated China at first, but turned out only to be a quick "assassination" rather than stable victory. Qin Yuxuan beat Miwa in a clean sweep, showing that the Chinese are not going down without a fight.

So what do you guys think? I personally believe that she will evolve her game as well, but I don't know if the Chinese are going to allow her to get past them.
A lot of people are hopeful though, someone even started a fanpage for her on Youtube.

TareqPhoto · Aug 28, 2022

If the tours going in slow pace and more restrictions because of travel and COVID things i feel that China won't fight longer, but they will still be dominant, i saw more players facing Chinese even in males, so it means that China now aren't trying to be like dominant as much as before, but i don't think Miwa will have a chance if she let more non Chinese players to compete Chinese as well beside her, This year and last year i felt like Chinese aren't always on top anymore, World Championship i saw Truls in final rather than another Chinese, and in those European competitions the Lebrun brothers are rising, and also Moto brothers are doing nice in doubles, so if she really want to shine she has like those two years to do so, otherwise,..... FORGET.

lodro · Aug 29, 2022

not unless she will undergo a sex change😎

Tony's Table Tennis · Aug 29, 2022

Miwa is a lot more complete of a player than Ito, Hirano, as well as her brother.
Both mentally and physically.

She doesn't have that Tokyo 2020 burden like the other 15 players chosen in 2012.
Even though she does have weights on her shoulders, I think the 15 that had that weight (since like 10 year olds) was beyond anything close to legal and made that "short assassination" as you described and now that energy/flare is not as strong as before.

So I hope for Miwa's sake, she can just be a regular junior in the senior space and not have some olympic home ground burden.

However, I do not believe such young age junior in senior circuit is a good thing, maybe from age 16 onwards, but surely not 13 or 14 (13/14 should be in the U18/U19 space at most).

Dominikk85 · Aug 29, 2022

The big problem is that Chinese women are much better than Chinese men (relatively), especially in the depth department.The top3 chinese men (fzd, wcq and ma long) are very good but the chinese men after them aren't much better than the top euro or japan guys. In china on the other hand you have at least 10 women who can easily beat every non chinese player.That makes it extremely tough to even win a medal in a women's event because it just takes one of the many chinese to take you out. That means miwa (like hirano and ito before her) will have the same issue, she needs to prepared to beat 9 or 10 different chinese players, while the chinese players can focus on very few non chinese threats. It think it will end up like with ito, initially she gives the Chinese some trouble but then they will figure her out albeit miwas game might be a bit more complex and less one dimensional than itos game.

pongfugrasshopper · Aug 29, 2022

Dominikk85 said:
The big problem is that Chinese women are much better than Chinese men (relatively), especially in the depth department.The top3 chinese men (fzd, wcq and ma long) are very good but the chinese men after them aren't much better than the top euro or japan guys. In china on the other hand you have at least 10 women who can easily beat every non chinese player.That makes it extremely tough to even win a medal in a women's event because it just takes one of the many chinese to take you out. That means miwa (like hirano and ito before her) will have the same issue, she needs to prepared to beat 9 or 10 different chinese players, while the chinese players can focus on very few non chinese threats. It think it will end up like with ito, initially she gives the Chinese some trouble but then they will figure her out albeit miwas game might be a bit more complex and less one dimensional than itos game.

I'll give you the top 4 (SYS, WMY, CM, WYD), but aside from them, name 6 CNT women that can "easily beat" Hina Hayata, Mima Ito, Miyuu Kihara, Miu Hirano, and Miwa Harimoto (who lost 11-13 in the 7th to ZR in the latest Contender).

Tony's Table Tennis · Aug 29, 2022

I understand your argument and can agree to a certain extent.
But we shouldn't be talking 10, we should be talking 2 or 5 in Singles.

These contenders etc, are only for ranking / seeding. So it is a mathematical equation to build up until seeding list.

Then when comes to OG or WTTC, you will have a goal of 2 or 5 opponents.

Based on draw, OG you may have 1 or 2 Chinese in your side of the draw.
and also 3 other that is a threat from other countries

WTTC, be prepared to beat 3 Chinese in a row to win.

It isn't an exist task, but beating 2 or 3 in a row has happened before.
The problem is, how to maintain at that level more often. While you peak, so could your opponent and it is mentally draining to take out 1 of them, yet alone 3 in a row.

TareqPhoto · Aug 30, 2022

We will wait and see, i won't hold big hopes on Miwa, but i will be happy for her if she can get something along her journey.

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Will Miwa Harimoto surpass her brother?

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