Tomokazu Harimoto

Tomokazu Harimoto (張本 智和, Harimoto Tomokazu, born June 27, 2003) is a Japanese table tennis player. In August 2017, he became the youngest ever winner of an ITTF World Tour men's singles title, winning the Czech Open title at the age of 14 years and 61 days. In December 2018, he became the youngest player to win the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals at the age of 15 years and 172 days.

Harimoto was born as Zhang Zhihe (simplified Chinese: 张智和; traditional Chinese: 張智和; pinyin: Zhāng Zhìhé) in Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. His father Zhang Yu (Chinese: 张宇; pinyin: Zhāng Yǔ) and mother Zhang Ling (Chinese: 张凌; pinyin: Zhāng Líng) are both former professional table tennis players from Sichuan province, China. Zhang Ling, at the peak of her career, represented China at the 43rd World Table Tennis Championships in Tianjin.

Harimoto began playing table tennis at the age of two. He became a naturalized citizen of Japan in 2014 and legally changed his surname to Harimoto. After graduating from East Miyagi Elementary School in 2016, he relocated to Tokyo to join the JOC Elite Academy. His pastimes include baseball and reading.

Junior career

Harimoto first won the All-Japan Table Tennis Championships Juniors title in 2010 as a first grader.He would continue to win the tournament for all 6 years of his elementary school years.In 2015, he was chosen to represent Japan at the World Junior Table Tennis Championships in France, becoming the youngest Japanese player to be chosen.However, due to the November 2015 Paris attacks, Harimoto was not able to participate in the tournament.

Aged 12 years and 355 days, Harimoto defeated seasoned professionals Ho Kwan Kit, Hugo Calderano, and teammate Kohei Sambe to win the 2016 U-21Japan Open title.With the win, he became the youngest winner ITTF World Tour under-21 men's singles title. Later that year, Harimoto won gold medals in the boys' singles and teams even at the World Junior Table Tennis Championships in Cape Town, South Africa. This win was historic, as Harimoto became the youngest winner of the World Junior Championships aged 13 years and 163 days. Harimoto achieved an Under-21 ranking of No. 10 in the world in December 2016.

2017

Harimoto began the year in February at the recently revamped India Open. He reached the finals with victories over Álvaro Robles, Sakai Asuka, Robert Gardos, and local favorite Sharath Kamal, before losing to defending champion Dimitrij Ovtcharov in straight sets.

• June 2016: Youngest ever winner of an ITTF World Tour under-21 men's singles title (12 years, 355 days).
• December 2016: Youngest ever winner of the boys' singles title at the World Junior Championships (13 years, 163 days).
• August 2017: Youngest ever winner of an ITTF World Tour men's singles title (14 years, 61 days).
• January 2018: Youngest ever winner of the men's singles title at the Japanese National Championships (14 years, 207 days).
• December 2018: Youngest ever winner of an ITTF World Tour Grand Finals men's singles title (15 years, 172 days).

ITTF Major tournament performance timeline

Senior career highlights, as of April 2018:

ITTF Career Singles Finals: 3

ITTF Career Doubles Finals: 2

Singles

• World Championships: QF (2017)
• ITTF World Tour Grand Finals: QF (2017), Winner (2018)
• ITTF World Tour:
  • Winner: 2017 Czech Open
  • Winner: 2018 Japan Open
  • Runner-up: 2017 India Open
• Asian Championships: Last 32 (2017)

Men's doubles

• ITTF World Tour Grand Finals: QF (2017)
• ITTF World Tour:
  • Runner-up: 2017 China Open, 2017 German Open

Team events

• World Team Championships: QF (2018)
• Team World Cup: Runner-up (2018)
• Asian Championships: SF (2017)

Awards

• ITTF Star Awards: Breakthrough Star (2017)

Record against top-10 players

Harimoto's singles match record against those who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who have been No. 1 in bold:

Statistics correct as of 7 May 2018. * indicates current world rank no. 1.