Tomokazu Harimoto, Mima Ito headline Japan's 2020 table tennis squad
The Japan Table Tennis Association announced Monday the six players who will represent the Olympic host nation at the 2020 Tokyo Games. The men's team consists of world No. 5 Tomokazu Harimoto, No. 15 Koki Niwa and No. 16 Jun Mizutani, while the women's team ...
Ambitious T. League begins play at Ryogoku Kokugikan
With the lofty ambition of eventually becoming the world's best table tennis circuit, the T. League kicked off competition at a lavishly decorated Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on Wednesday night. The organizers staged a glitzy opening show, featuring choreographed lighting and videos played on screens ...
T.League primed to kick off inaugural season
One day before the T.League officially kicks off its inaugural season with a men's match between the Kinoshita Meister Tokyo and T.T Saitama, chairman Koji Matsushita, players and coaches showed their excitement and jitters to be a part of Japan's first professional table tennis ...
14-year-old Tomokazu Harimoto becomes youngest national table tennis singles champion
Fourteen-year-old Tomokazu Harimoto became Japan's youngest national table tennis singles champion on Sunday, beating Rio de Janeiro bronze medalist Jun Mizutani 4-2 in the men's final. Harimoto fought aggressively throughout his 11-9, 11-5, 8-11, 11-2, 6-11, 11-5 victory and snapped Mizutani's hopes of winning his ...
T.League unveils ambitious details for inaugural 2018 season, beyond
With an ambitious goal to eventually become the best table tennis league in the world, the T.League Premier League will kick off in Japan in the fall of 2018. On Friday, the league held a meeting in Tokyo for companies and groups that are interested ...
China taking notice of Japan's rising talents
Although the Japan Open showcased Chinese table tennis supremacy rather than Japan's rise, China's stars have a wary eye on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic hosts — if their words are taken at face value. Kasumi Ishikawa, Mima Ito and Asian champ Miu Hirano all crashed ...
Hirano vows to face up to Chinese challenge
It was a cruel reality check for Miu Hirano as her surging run of form came to a shuddering end in the Japan Open quarterfinals, but the 17-year-old vowed to rebuild her game to again challenge China's top players. Her straight-games defeat (7-11, 8-11, 5-11, ...
Ito squanders two-game lead against Wang in Japan Open quarterfinals defeat
Sixteen-year-old Mima Ito relinquished a 2-0 lead against 2014 and 2015 world junior champion Wang Manyu, bowing out of the Japan Open in the women's singles quarterfinals on Saturday. Ito made a bright start, but threw away chances to sway the match and with it ...
Harimoto striving to boost ranking after sensational debut
Sensational junior high school student Tomokazu Harimoto is now setting his sights on playing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after becoming the youngest quarterfinalist ever at the recent world table tennis championships. Amazed at the number of media people surrounding him, the 13-year-old said he ...
World Table Tennis Championships debutant Tomokazu Harimoto secured a shock 4-1 win over Rio bronze medalist Jun Mizutani on Thursday in the second round of men's singles. The 13-year-old Harimoto, whose parents are from China, won the boy's singles at the world junior championships in ...
Rio Olympic bronze medalist Jun Mizutani knows what he must do in order to stand on the podium at the World Table Tennis Championships for the first time, and is poised to continue challenging China's dominance in the sport. "I won't be able to win ...
Sixteen-year-old Miu Hirano became the youngest player to win the national table tennis championships in women's singles Sunday, while Jun Mizutani won a record ninth men's title. Hirano, who became the first Japanese to win a World Cup tournament in October, defeated four-time champion Kasumi ...
