The youngest Asian Cup champion

The 19-year-old Japanese player Tomokazu Harimoto won the Asian Cup men's singles championship, ending the 12 consecutive championships of the national table tennis men's team and setting a new record in the history of the Japanese table tennis team in the past 33 years. The first Asian Cup championship in this career. In terms of other gains, Zhang Benzhihe won a total of more than 140,000 yuan in bonuses and 500 points, thus surpassing Wang Chuqin and Ma Long and reaching second place in the world rankings.

There is no doubt that Tomokazu Harimoto is the brightest star in the world table tennis at this stage. In fact, Zhang Ben has been hailed as a "genius" by the outside world since he was 13 years old. He started competing in adult-level events at the age of 13. His initial honors include "setting a new record for the youngest player to enter the men's singles main draw of the Open." The youngest quarter-finalist in the history of the ITTF Open men’s singles adult category”, “the youngest U21 category champion in the history of the ITTF” and “the youngest champion in the history of the World Youth Championship”

And Harimoto Tomokazu has thus become an opponent that China's national table tennis team values. In 2018, 15-year-old Harimoto Tomokazu's career ushered in a breakthrough. First, he defeated Japan's top table tennis player Mizutani Hayabusa at the domestic championships and won the title. National Champion, becoming the youngest singles champion in the history of the event. At the Japan Open of the same year, Zhang Benzhihe defeated the national table tennis Olympic champion Zhang Jike 4-3, defeating a world champion player for the first time. This battle made Zhang Benz famous.

In the subsequent story, Zhang Benzhihe began to continuously defeat Chinese national table tennis players, including defeating Lin Gaoyuan in the 2018 ITTF Finals to win the championship, becoming the youngest champion in the history of the event. The last time Zhang Benzhi defeated a national table tennis player was at the Chengdu World Table Tennis Championships, where the men's team defeated Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin in the semifinals. Throughout his career so far, Zhang Benzhihe has defeated national table tennis players a total of 6 times, making him the foreign player who has defeated national table tennis players the most times during the same period.

Today, Zhang Benzhihe has reached the second place in the world at the age of 19 and is still continuing his excellence. Ma Long also commented that Zhang Benz is constantly improving and will always be the main opponent of the national table tennis team. .

Zhang Benzhihe himself also has lofty ideals. The ultimate goal is to defeat the Chinese national table tennis players in the Olympics and win the Olympic singles gold medal. From this perspective, the Chinese national table tennis men's team needs to take good precautions against Zhang Ben and the impact of this Chinese genius.

Chikazu Harimoto’s parents are Chinese and their ancestral home is Sichuan, but Harimoto grew up in Japan. When he was 11 years old, he was completely naturalized in Japan and began to represent Japanese table tennis in international competitions. In addition, Tomokazu Harimoto's younger sister Miwa Harimoto is also a member of the Japanese women's table tennis team. She has won multiple World Youth Championships and is more talented than her brother. She is believed to be a big threat to the national table tennis women's team in the future.