Tomokazu Harimoto’s Equipment and Player Profile

Last Updated on May 23, 2024 by Alex Horscroft

Tomokazu Harimoto is one of the most successful young table tennis players of all time, and he has carried this success through to his career as an adult.

Join me as I cover what equipment he is using, how he likes to play, his record against the top players, and other info you’ll surely find interesting.

Tomokazu Harimoto’s Key Info

Name: Tomokazu Harimoto

Nationality: Japanese (formerly Chinese)

Date of Birth: June 27th, 2003

Grip: Shakehander

Style: Looper (righty)

Highest ranking: 2 (November 2002)

Height: 5 ft 10 in

Tomokazu Harimoto’s Equipment in 2024

Tomokazu Harimoto’s Blade

Tomokazu Harimoto’s blade is the Butterfly Harimoto Innerforce ALC. As a Butterfly-sponsored athlete, he has been using equipment made by the company for some time. Previously, he used the same blade with a customized handle.

According to his father Yu who helped coach Tomokazu, he selected the Fukuhara AI Pro ZLF as his first blade. I imagine this was his first custom blade though, rather than his first blade ever, as it’s far too fast for a beginner.

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Tomokazu Harimoto’s Rubbers

Tomokazu Harimoto’s rubbers consist of Dignics 05 on both sides. This is unsurprising as he was using Tenergy for many years prior. While Tenergy 05 seemed to be his most popular version, he also dabbled with Tenergy 05FX, Tenergy 05 Hard, and Tenergy 64. However, T05 Hard was too hard for his game, so he didn’t use it for long.

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Tomokazu Harimoto’s Playstyle

Screaming

Although it may seem silly, I can’t adequately cover Harimoto’s playstyle without discussing his screaming during matches. Lots of players shout “Cho!” or “Cho-le!” after winning a point, but Harimoto is on another level. He’s almost become a meme for it at this point. It serves to frustrate his opponent and increase his confidence.

Deadly Close-to-the-Table Play

The main way Tomokazu’s style differs from other top pros is his close-to-the-table style of play. By taking the ball earlier, he reduces the time his opponents have to react. This can draw them into his world or force them to take a step back to compensate.

Harimoto is masterful when it comes to close-to-the-table strokes. He’s especially good on his backhand, particularly with driving and more direct looping. He doesn’t usually go for high spin, rather blistering pace.

He’s even very skilled at looping near the table with his forehand. However, it’s not quite on the level of his backhand when close to the table. This is partly due to the nature of the stroke. While fundamentally more powerful, it takes longer to execute.

High-Quality Flicks

Many players use the backhand flick because it’s the easiest way to attack short balls. However, few use the forehand flick all that much. This is because it’s a flatter stroke and doesn’t generate much topspin. Being a master of flatter strokes, it’s unsurprising that it’s a part of Harimoto’s arsenal.

If the ball goes a little high when short on his forehand, a forehand flick may well follow.

Vulnerable Wide to Forehand

One of the main weaknesses I see in Harimoto’s game is wide to the forehand. He plays a very backhand-heavy style and his footwork isn’t the best. This sometimes leads to him getting caught out by fast loops that are well placed on his forehand side.

Tomokazu Harimoto in Action

Tomokazu Harimoto’s Career

Junior Career

Many pro players start early, but Harimoto just may have the record! A paddle was first placed in his hands at the age of 2! It seems both his parents were keen to get him into the sport. Hardly surprising given both were former pros themselves.

The investment in his practice from such an early age paid off, as Harimoto won the junior event at the All-Japan Table Tennis Championships at just 6 years old. And no, this wasn’t a fluke. He would go on to win the same title for six years running while at elementary school.

This significantly raised his profile and led to him being selected for the World Junior Table Tennis Championships — the youngest ever! Unfortunately, the Paris attacks at the time prevented it from going ahead.

Yet this wouldn’t prevent Harimoto from breaking records. In 2017, he won the Czech Open, by doing so, becoming the youngest player ever to win an ITTF World Tour men’s singles title. He was 14 years and 61 days old at the time. The next year he became the youngest player ever to win an ITTF World Tour Grand Finals title at 15 years and 172 days old.

Adult Career

At the 2021 Houston World Championships, Harimoto claimed his first medal at the event, securing silver. Partnering with Hina Hayata in the mixed doubles, the pair fell to Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha in the final. This is an outcome that would be repeated at the 2023 Durban World Championships.

Unfortunately, they didn’t get close in either match, losing 11-2, 11-5, and 11-8 in 2021, and then 11-6, 11-2, and 11-7 in 2023. That being said, Chuqin and Yingsha are the top-ranked doubles pair in the world, sitting with 8,500 ranking points. Hayata and Harimoto are ranked second, but they have less than half as many ranking points.

Yet it’s not all second places finishes for Harimoto, he has claimed many titles since becoming an adult. One of his biggest wins was his Asian Cup title at Bangkok in 2022. He won comfortably, winning all his matches 4-1 from the round of 16 onwards.

Tomokazu Harimoto’s Toughest Opponents

Tomokazu Harimoto vs. Xu Xin

Xu Xin has proved to be Harimoto’s most difficult opponent as he has never beaten him. That being said, he put up a mighty fine effort in their last match at the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in 2022. I was very surprised with how well Harimoto coped with Xu’s forehand. Ultimately, though, he ended up losing 4-3.

Tomokazu Harimoto vs. Wang Chuqin

Harimoto has won just two out of his eight matches against Wang; one of which was a while back in the boy’s event at the Youth Olympic Games. Typically, Wang wins in straight games or drops only one.

Tomokazu Harimoto vs. Liang Jingkun

While Liang has beaten Harimoto in five out of their six meetings, Harimoto actually won his only match 4-0 very convincingly. Therefore, he certainly has the capability to win more.

Opponents	Wins	Losses	Win Rate
Xu Xin	0	7	0%
Liang Jingkun	1	5	17%
Wang Chuqin	2	8	20%
An Jaehyun	1	4	20%
Fan Zhendong	2	5	29%
Ma Long	2	4	33%
Lin Gaoyuan	3	4	43%
Dimitrij Ovtcharov	5	4	56%

Data taken from Ratings Central & Table Tennis Reference (as of May 2024)

Tomokazu Harimoto’s Gold Medals

🏆 WTT Contender Atalya — Men’s doubles (2023)

🏆 Asian Cup — Men’s singles (2022)

🏆 WTT Contender Trials — Men’s doubles & mixed doubles (2022)

🏆 WTT Champions European Summer Series — Men’s singles (2022)

🏆 WTT Contender Zagreb — Mixed doubles (2022)

🏆 WTT Star Contender Doha — Men’s singles (2021)

🏆 ITTF World Tour Hungarian Open — Men’s singles (2020)

🏆 ITTF World Tour Grand Final – Men’s singles (2018)

🏆 ITTF World Tour Japan Open — Men’s singles (2018)

🏆 ITTF World Tour Czech Open — Men’s singles (2017)

🏆 World Junior Championships — Singles and Team ((2016)

🏆 ITTF World Tour Japan Open — Men’s singles (2016)

🏆 ITTF Junior Circuit Chinese Taipei Open — Men’s singles (2015)

🏆 All-Japan Championship — Various (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019)

Closing Thoughts

Tomokazu Harimoto is one of the most promising young table tennis players. He uses the Butterfly Harimoto Innerforce ALC for his blade and Dignics 05 for his rubbers.

While he is yet to win a gold at any of the three majors, he has broken many records and has wins over all of the current top three players in the world. Therefore, I suspect it is not a matter of if he will win gold at these events, but rather when.

*Cover image provided by Marcus Cyron under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license | unedited