On November 23, in a marquee match of Japan’s T-League between Okayama and Kinoshita Tokyo, the third game featured Tomokazu Harimoto vs. Hiroto Matsushima. Harimoto lost the first game, then came back to win the next two and took a 2–1 lead. But Matsushima claimed the final two games, completing a 3–2 comeback victory.
The game scores were: 11–7, 6–11, 4–11, 11–5, 11–8.
Although Matsushima lost the second and third games quickly, he dominated the fourth to force a decider. In the final game, Matsushima stayed ahead most of the time. Harimoto fought back to tie it 8–8, but Matsushima scored three straight points to seal the match.
At just 18 years old, Matsushima is already playing on equal footing with Japan’s top players. Meanwhile, China’s rising men’s player Wen Ruibo has yet to dominate even the World Youth Championships — the gap is clear. Matsushima has essentially become Japan’s No. 2 male player, and he may soon rise to No. 1.
On October 14 at the Asian Championships men’s team semifinal, Matsushima faced world No. 1 Wang Chuqin in the second match and stunned him 3–2, giving Japan a 2–0 lead over China. Fortunately for China, Lin Shidong won the third match to start the comeback, and Liang Jingkun narrowly defeated Matsushima in the decider to secure the victory.
After winning the Frankfurt Champions tournament, the 18-year-old Matsushima climbed to world No. 8, while Harimoto is currently No. 5. At his age, his rise is incredibly rapid. After beating Wang Chuqin, he even said he feels the gap between himself and the world’s top players is shrinking — and he believes he has a real chance to beat them again in the future.
