Uda Yukiya (Japan)

[GAOdp]

Uda Yukiya (宇田 幸矢, Uda Yukiya, born August 6, 2001 in Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese athlete, table tennis player. Bronze medalist of the 2021 World Championship in men's doubles, champion and multiple medalist of the Asian Championships. In 2022, he won a silver medal in the men's doubles and a bronze medal in the men's singles of the first tournament of the WTT Grand Smashes series - Singapore Smash-2022. He is a student of Meiji University, also a member of JOC Elite Academy (JOCエリートアカデミー) in Tokyo, and a player for Team Ryukyu Asteeda since Season 3 (2020/21) in the Japanese Pro League T-League, was previously under a Kinoshita Meister Tokyo contract in Season 2 ( 2019/20). Uda won the mixed doubles title at the 2019 Youth World Championships with Miyuu Kihara. In 2020, Yukiya won the singles at the 2020 Japan National Championships, defeating Harimoto in the final, in 2022 he became the champion in men's doubles and the bronze medalist in mixed doubles.He has a consulting contract with Tamas (Butterfly). The highest ITTF world ranking of the International Table Tennis Federation is 35th (December 2020).

 

[Gozo]

Uda's equipment set-up in WTT Singapore SMASH

a short description of his play-style? Got any info on this?

 

[SFF_lib]

Uda has great potential. Despite his short figure, he showed very fast recovery and footwork. Faster than Harimoto at least.

Nobody outside China posed such a tough fight to Fan Zhendong. You can tell Uda maybe the next star from Japan.

 

[Michael Zhuang]

I wonder how bad Harimoto feels being passed over by Uda. The Japanese media was touting Harimoto as once in a century player. Being surpassed in a short 3 years might affect his mental fitness.

But Uda deserves it for playing the right way. Harimoto spent the last 3 years and didn't bother to learn how to do anything new.

 

[Zwill]

I wonder how bad Harimoto feels being passed over by Uda. The Japanese media was touting Harimoto as once in a century player. Being surpassed in a short 3 years might affect his mental fitness.

But Uda deserves it for playing the right way. Harimoto spent the last 3 years and didn't bother to learn how to do anything new.

That's very unfair against Harimoto. Obviously he had a lot of change in his body and he I'm sure it's not easy for him. He is still exceptionally good for his age. It's unfair to assume that he will improve at the same rate as when he was 13 or 14.

Btw Uda was in a pretty big slum this season, so I'm glad to see him back in more of his form. I was looking forward what he would play against a top Chinese player since he is such a great rally player. I still don't think he's in top form though. Hope I can see him play against Hao Shuai in the T-league too.

He's playing with an Innerforce ZLC (with custom handle), D05 on FH and D80 on BH. And as far as I remember he prefers heavier setups, around 195g.

 

[passifid]

Imho most of the press outside of China is too hungry for a legend like JOW.
they should celebrate the successes of their players rather than thinking one single good performance a year or two a year is more indicative of ability than unexpected losses.

​​​​​​this has created a toxic culture where a player simply doing their best can still underperform despite being a top 10 player worldwide.

Harimoto just very good. But it's common for a break away success early in the career.
See how pitchford for one or two games a year beats or has fantastic form against a top player. This is because he has a unique style and sometimes this does well if a player doesn't appropriately prepare.

Harimoto is ofc better and Uda has played fantastic. But it's important to see where he falls after the great SinoGerman appraisal machine works out every one of his weaknesses perfectly. And the worst thing to do is have unrealistic expectations to drive his confidence down

 

[Haraold]

Well but as JOW himself said,if you want to compete with the best,you have train with the best.
What i want to say is that compared to money spent,training,education its no wonder that China has the best players.
If the best of Europe would train against each other,they would be a worthy ccontrahent more constantly.

 

[Zwill]

I get it why Harimoto receives all the hate (loud) but it's not like he's unsportsmanlike or arrogant. In fact he seems very well mannered.
Sure since the olympics he lost against several lower ranked players. It happens... I'm not even a Harimoto fan, but all the parade he had to go trough the last 4-5 years shouldn't have been easy, so I have some sympathy.

But hey, look at Lin Yun-ju, how many matches did he lose in the European Championships this year? Like all of them? Still he pushed Ma Long quite a bit. Uda with just a bit of luck could've had 3-3 against FZD and then who knows... I'm just saying both lefties had an abysmal season prior. Good to see them back. I would like to see them clash too.

Well but as JOW himself said,if you want to compete with the best,you have train with the best.
What i want to say is that compared to money spent,training,education its no wonder that China has the best players.
If the best of Europe would train against each other,they would be a worthy ccontrahent more constantly.

Well the top Chinese players for sure have the advantage to play against hundreds of excellent players, in fact they can "sacrifice" a few of their players to try to mimic some unusual players style (like Boll). I'm sure there are several Boll copies in the CNT just for this reason.
You don't really have this commitment anywhere else.

 

[Haraold]

didn´t Harimoto just recently graduate?
Then everybody with at least a decent amount of common sense should understand why he is not at the height of hisgame..
Yes that´s what i meant with education and money when they copy a player like Timo.
But most of the changes come from mimicking the best player,cpen players are not as common as before JOW won.

 

[Michael Zhuang]

I just can't see Harimoto ever getting back to his past form. He is a bit of a one trick pony. He stands very close to the table and relies on quick reaction and counters to hit winners against his opponent.

But with his growth, his speed seems to be a fraction slower. And opponents have adjusted to his unusual style.

In the past 3 years, he hasn't at all learned a mid-range loop game like all the top CNT players. I just don't see how he can recover his prior level.

I was rooting for him and hoping he would be a great player, but there is hope and there is realism.

 

[Lynnguayy]

I think he'll never recover. Especially since he can't do what he used to do. Meiji University is one of the best that I know of, and I'm interested if the welders there use services like this https://edubirdie.com/buy-college-essays. Because to me, it seems like a brilliant idea to buy college essays because it means you have a lot of free time when you can do something more useful than writing papers.