Tomokazu Harimoto and Masaharu Yoshimura’s Journey in the 19th Asian Games Table Tennis Competition
2023-09-29 11:04:05
Tomokazu Harimoto and Masaharu Yoshimura Photo by Zhizhao Wu/Getty Images
19th Asian Games
On September 29th, the third round of men’s singles was held, and the Japanese team was played by Tomokazu Harimoto (20 = Tomokazu Kikaku / World Ranking) 4th place) advanced to the quarterfinals.
Harimoto will compete against Noshad Alamian (31 = Iran / 53rd place), who won the singles bronze medal in the 2018 tournament. The first game was close in the second half, but Harimoto was able to escape with a score of 11-9.
In the second game, Aramian deftly attacked with a single backhand and took the game point first, but he came back 12-10 and won the third game, 11-8. They lost the next two games 5-11 and 10-12, but in the sixth game they overcame their persistent opponent and won 12-10.
Masaharu Yoshimura (30 = TEAM MAHARU / 79th place in the same year) will have a match against Huang Zhenting (32 = Hong Kong / 49th place in the same year). Yoshimura lost the first game 7-11 and then lost the second game 11-13. However, they won the third game 13-11, and then won the next two games 11-5 and 11-3.
Yoshimura changed his game after the third game, but lost the sixth game 5-11, and in the seventh and final game, he expanded his lead in the middle and lost 7-11.
Harimoto’s quarterfinal opponent will be Jang Woo-jin (South Korea), and he will be aiming for his first medal in men’s singles in 13 years since Jun Mizutani (bronze medal) at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.