Born to Chinese parents, he became a naturalized Japanese citizen in Harimoto began playing table tennis at the age of two. Consequently, his father and sister chose to become Japanese citizens as well. He would continue to win the tournament for all 6 years of his elementary school years. In , 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 Paris attacks , Harimoto was not able to participate in the tournament. This win was historic, as Harimoto became the youngest winner of the World Junior Championships aged 13 years and days. Harimoto achieved an Under ranking of No.
Harimoto began the year in February at the recently revamped India Open. His outstanding performance in also helped him reach No. Harimoto won third place at the World Cup. Harimoto led 3β1 against Ma Long in the semi-finals, but lost 4β3 after Ma Long called time-out in the fifth game and switched to a high-toss serve that Harimoto had trouble reading.
In June, teammate Jun Mizutani said that Harimoto's mental game was steadily improving in and better than the previous year. Mizutani also positively noted that Harimoto was reverting to his more aggressive style of play in Harimoto was upset by Darko Jorgic in the round of 16 of the men's singles event at the Tokyo Olympics.
Senior career highlights, as of 11 January [ 30 ]. Harimoto's singles match record against those who had been ranked in the top 10 as of 11 January [update] : [ 74 ]. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Japanese table tennis player born Medal record.
