(by Steve Hopkins)
Tomokazu Harimoto scored a pair of Sunday upsets on his way to winning the latest WTT Tour Event, the WTT Star Contender Bangkok. World No. 11 Harimoto entered the event as the third seed, but knocked out Lin Yun-Ju (No.8) in the Semifinals 3-1 and then topped Lin Gaoyuan (No. 7) in four straight to take the title.
The event is the last of the WTT Series opportunities to build momentum heading in to the Olympics, and both Harimoto and Lin Yun-Ju will figure prominently in the medal chase in Paris. In fact, as only two players from each county will play in singles, Lin Yun-Ju should be the fifth seed in Paris and Harimoto should be the 7th seed.
Harimoto’s run to the title in Bangkok included two tight 3-2 wins over Hiroto Shinozuka and Lim Jonghoon on Saturday. But on Sunday, Harimoto was unstoppable, dropping just 1 game as he rolled through both higher seeded opponents.
USA’s Jinbao Ma logged another win in Bangkok, winning his opening round match over France’s Irvin Bertrand 3-1 before falling to Lin Yun-Ju 0-3. As most of the US is focused on the US Nationals (and our players heading to Paris at the end of this Month), Jinbao is traveling the world competing in WTT events and he now has his US-best World Ranking pumped all the way up to World No. 67. Jinbao (Stephen) Ma lives in Sunnyvale, California – he won the US Open last December, and he plays for the Bay Area Blasters in the MLTT.
Top seed Chen Xingtong (World No. 6) was upset in the Round of 16 by Taipei’s Suh Hyo Won 3-2. Suh fell 0-3 to Mima Ito in the Semifinals. Second seeded Miwa Harimoto lost her opening match against fell-Japanese player Honoka Hashimoto. Hashimoto continued her amazing run with another pair of upset wins on her way to the Final. Mima Ito won the All-Japanese Final 4-2.
Japan also swept the doubles titles – winning Men’s Doubles (Matsushima/Harimoto), Women’s Doubles (Hashimoto/Sato), and Mixed Doubles (Harimoto/Hayata). And of note, Tomokazu Harimoto showed he was in peak shape for Planded three first place finishes (Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles), and the relatively unknown Hashimoto (World No. 139 – the 12th ranked Japanese woman) added a Women’s Doubles title to her already impressive Women’s Singles Finalist result.
The next event for the World’s top players will be the Olympics. The Paris Olympic Games will be from July 26 – August 11. WTT does have a number of Youth events planned for July, including a WTT Youth Contender event in San Francisco July 22-25.
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