by Wade Townsend

In his World Championships debut, thirteen year old Tomokazu Harimoto (JPN) has knocked out teammate and 6th seed Jun Mizutani in the Men’s Singles at the Liebherr 2017 World Table Tennis championships in Düsseldorf.

With a current world ranking of number 69, the Japanese junior was able to break the usually impenetrable defences of Rio bronze medallist Jun Mizutani. He took the match in style, winning 4-1.

While others emphasise his youth, Harimoto thinks it shouldn’t necessarily be a talking point.

“Age has nothing to do with table tennis.” Tomokazu Harimoto

It was a fearless and hyper aggressive style of play that got Harimoto over the line.