(by Steve Hopkins)

The ITTF-ATTU Asian Championships concluded in Tashkent today with the battle between Asian superpowers starting early as China won the Men’s Teams and Japan won Women’s Teams.  Japan then won Mixed Doubles before China took both the Men’s and Women’s Doubles titles.  And then the week ended with China’s upset win in Women’s Singles, and Japan closing strong winning Men’s Singles.  The final tally was China 4, Japan 3 – splitting the Team events, splitting the Singles events, and a 2-1 advantage to China in Doubles

Tomokazu Harimoto ended the week on a high note, but both he and World No. 1 Sora Matsushima suffered upset losses in the Team Event as Korea claimed a 3-1 win on their way to finishing second.  In Men’s teams, China dropped only one game in their three matches – with Taipei’s Kuo Guan-Hong winning his match, but all of the other 9 matches going to China leading to a 3-0 win over Iran, a 3-1 win over Taipei, and a 3-0 Finals win over the Korea Republic.

In the Women’s Teams, top-seeded China fell to second-seeded Japan in the Final.  Hashimoto won two matches, including the decider over Wang Yidi.  Miwa Harimoto added the other win – topping Chen Yi 3-0 in the fourth game.  Chen Yi flipped the script in Women’s Singles.  That is, in China’s upset loss, Yi fell 0-3 to both Hashimoto and Harimoto, but in Singles, Chen Yi had an amazing three match run that included a 3-0 win over Hina Hayata, a 3-0 win over Wang Yidi, and a 3-0 Finals win over Miwa Harimoto.  Hashimoto fell to Kuai Man in the Quarters, and Kuai Man was eliminated one round later in a tight 3-2 match with Harimoto.

Miwa Harimoto’s name came up a lot this week.  She was a key part of the Women’s Team win.  She was runner-up in Women’s Singles.  She was runner up in Women’s Doubles (teaming with Hina Hayata but losing to China’s Kuai Man and Wang Yidi).  And she won again in Mixed Doubles – teaming with World No. 1 Sora Matsushima and winning.  That’s 2 gold, and 3 silvers – finals appearances in all five events in which she was able to enter.

The final headline of the week was Tomokazu Harimoto’s performance in Men’s Singles.  Harimoto was pushed early – needing to fight through a tight 3-2 win in the Round of 32 as he topped Kim Minhyeok of the Korea Republic.  He dominated a tough Huang Youzheng for a 3-0 win on Saturday morning, and then had a gut check on Saturday evening after falling behind 0-2 to Feng Yi-Hsin of Taipei – eventually winning 3-2.  Sunday’s script was the same as Saturday’s – dominating a tough Wen Ruibo 3-0 in the early Semifinal match, but then falling behind 0-2 to set up a 3-2 comeback Finals victory over Li Tianyang.

The bottom half of the draw where Harimoto emerged was pretty straight forward.  The top seed in that half was Harimoto, and the next seed was Wen Ruibo – and those two reached the Semifinals (which the higher seed won).  The top half of the draw that went to 19 year old Li Tianyang was way more interesting.  Top seed Sora Matsushima withdrew and was a walkover for Sri Lanka’s Senura Silva.  Silva then lost in the Round of 32 to Gyuhyeon Park.  Park lost in the next round (Round of 16) to Li Tianyang.  Tianyang then defeated the highest remaining seed 3-0, Xiang Peng. Zhou Qihao was upset by Korea’s Dongsoo Kang in the Round of 32.  That set off another set of short runs with Kang falling in the next round to Wong Chun Ting, and then Wong falling in the next round to Kuo Guan-Hong.  So two unlikely players faced off in the Semifinal – with China’s 19 year old Tianyang against 17 year old Kuo Guan-Hong of the Korea Republic.   Those two fought to a standstill through three games with Kuo up 2-1, but then Li Tianyang found his stride and dominated the final two games 11-2 and 11-6 for the 3-2 win.  That momentum continued through the first two games of the Final against Harimoto, but it was Harimoto that managed the comeback win and Tianyang had to settle for second.

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