World Tour Grand Finals 2018

[Atas Newton]

Pictures to be hung up high in the CNT training hall.

Liu Guoliang will get them printed on training balls lol

 

[Vlad Celler]

Liu Guoliang will get them printed on training balls lol

 

[zeio]

BTW, Harimoto just broke Guo Yue's old record of winning the Grand Finals at 16 years old.

 

[jawien]

BTW, Harimoto just broke Guo Yue's old record of winning the Grand Finals at 16 years old.

He is on a hunt for those records for quite some time ... 2019 and the Olympic year are going to be great if this rivalry continues ...

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

for WTTC Harimoto is definitely a contender , but the CNT squad will be heavy armored...

 

[Danny21312]

the more they play him, the better they'll know his serves. He is imporving, but what you do is extrapolating that growth linearly, which is not how the growth works. It's always logarithmic: fast at first, slow later, stops at some point. Diminishing returns and all. I'm a statistician so naturally I love stats. What do they tell us about the phenomenal year Harimoto had? You be the judge, other top players for comparison. The reason for my choice of Fan Zhendong becomes obvious as well.

• Tomokazu Harimoto
• Lin Gaoyuan
• Xu Xin
• Ma Long
• Fan Zhendong

Fan Zhendong is an absolute monster. Harimoto has been very hit or miss. Just check the game scores in the matches he lost.

Dude you are comparing the stats of a 15 year old and a bunch of early to late 20 year olds. Of course he's not gonna have the same stats as them. ML, FZD, XX and LGY didn't have the same stats that they have now when they were 15. Hell, they didn't even have the same stats as Harimoto does at 15.

 

[jawien]

for WTTC Harimoto is definitely a contender , but the CNT squad will be heavy armored...

Yes they will!
I will be interesting to see who's going to take the lead, who's going to be "the Captain" in those crucial years. Will Ma Long make a return of the king, will Fan Zhendong finally blossoms and cements his position, will Xu Xin stay invincible against the foreigners and Hari, will LGY get more chances ... last but not least, how Tomokazu will progress with his game? All sorts of interesting question ... : )

 

[WorkerBee]

You can watch the unedited game here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2JL5LuWN-I
ITTF is actually editing/reducing the world finals on its' site! Too bad, I shouldn't swear on a public site.

 

[drunix80]

Chinese media will soon point out that after all HT is Chinese . No shame in losing to brethen.

 

[drunix80]

Dude you are comparing the stats of a 15 year old and a bunch of early to late 20 year olds. Of course he's not gonna have the same stats as them. ML, FZD, XX and LGY didn't have the same stats that they have now when they were 15. Hell, they didn't even have the same stats as Harimoto does at 15.

Legends are those who stay at the peak for the longest or those who achieve everything in a short period of time. So even if HT retires at 21 after achieving what ZJK or ML did, he will have a greater claim to GOAT.

 

[Simas]

According to our TTdaily poll, Harimoto had 10% chance to win

He got 100k for the victory, but what about ranking points? Is it 500 as for platinum series or more?

He should go to no.4 in the world and T.Boll should drop to no5? Waiting for January ITTF rankings

 

[jawien]

Legends are those who stay at the peak for the longest or those who achieve everything in a short period of time. So even if HT retires at 21 after achieving what ZJK or ML did, he will have a greater claim to GOAT.

Certainly it is a legitimate prospect for Harimoto, still on paper though so hold your horses. but if The Kid takes the Budapest ... man o man ... the battle for Tokyo will be something you'll be telling your grandsons about ... ; )

 

[NextLevel]

I can only hope LGY will not end up to be called Hao Shuai number 2 and got discarded. China does not need a CNT killer who lose to outsider in big tournaments. It is a long way before he can gain back LGL's trust. It is obviously too much pressure on him and he is not ready. May be even XX can't handle HT today but too bad it is LGY who took the blame. Congratulation HT for a near clean sweep. His eyes must be set on XX from now on who he has yet to beat and add to his collection.

Mizutani beat LJK. LGY's fault?
Calderano beat FZD. LGY's fault?

I suspect your not-so subtle argument is that XX could have done better than LGY. Well, XX will have chances to prove this in WTTC next year. But Harimoto is improving. When the XX record will shift is anyone's guess.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

thanks to Harimoto, i have a male pro player model who wins ! I was more looking at girls before (LIU Shiwen, Miu HIRANO....) because they stay at the table, but Harimoto is taking this style to new heights !

Come on Hari !

 

[Janard]

Now now, let's focus our sights on the next tournament! https://www.ittf.com/tournament/2953/2019/2019-ittf-world-tour-hungarian-open/

I guess Japan hasn't decided who they want to send (if at all).

 

[Danny21312]

Now now, let's focus our sights on the next tournament! https://www.ittf.com/tournament/2953/2019/2019-ittf-world-tour-hungarian-open/

I guess Japan hasn't decided who they want to send (if at all).

Japan national championships is during this time so they're not gonna send any Japanese players.

 

[NoFootwork]

Congrats to Harimoto, tremendous tournament. The kid is amazing, tough as nails mentally at such a young age.

LGY on the other hand looked like a deer in head lights and did not seem to want to be there on center stage.

 

[langel]

For me it was nice to see that Harimoto can be effective on longer distance too.

 

[Dr Evil]

Lucky for FZD he lost to Calderano.

 

[jawien]

Congrats to Harimoto, tremendous tournament. The kid is amazing, tough as nails mentally at such a young age.

LGY on the other hand looked like a deer in head lights and did not seem to want to be there on center stage.

.. thinking ... why the heck need I had to win with Xu Xin ...
; )