Champion Harimoto off to a blazing start

There was no stopping defending champion Tomokazu Harimoto last night at the WTT Champions Yokohama as the No.3 seed breezed through his opening match 11-3, 11-6, 11-5 against Nicholas Lum in under 20 minutes.

Called up as a late replacement entry just a few days prior to the event, it was always going to be a tough ask of Nicholas. While the Australian put up a valiant effort, he was simply outclassed by the champ, who was in no mood to stick around on his first appearance of the week.

Harimoto will return to action in the round of 16, where he’ll meet the winner of Xiang Peng and Vladimir Sidorenko, with the latter two meeting in opening round action later today.

The men’s singles title race, however, had been blown wide open, with No.4 seed Lin Yun-Ju suffering a shock 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-13, 11-9 opening round defeat at the hands of Lim Jong-hoon.

At the start of the season, Lin Yun-Ju took the WTT Champions stage by storm with his run to the title in Doha, and was well-backed to be in contention for the Yokohama crown.

Despite starting well, it was clear Lin was going to be in for a long day as Jong-hoon looked up for a scrap, hitting through the ball with venom to announce himself with a big impact in game two.

He carried that momentum with him into the third game, racing into a healthy 7-3 lead. To the shock of absolutely no one, Jong-hoon quickly turned to his Time Out after seeing that lead shrink to 7-6, a decision that paid off big time as the Korean star reset to take the game 11-7.

Jong-hoon was then presented with an opportunity to close out the match, standing on the cusp of victory at 11-10 in the fourth. That chance would pass him by, but remarkably it didn’t faze him in the slightest. Yun-Ju appeared to be back on track, and with the deciding game’s scoreboard advancing to 1-4 in the Silent Assassin’s favour, the sun was beginning to set fast on this one.

However, in one last extraordinary twist, the match would swing one more time as Jong-hoon put together a late charge. While Yun-ju would salvage another Match Point at 10-8, the Chinese Taipei player’s luck eventually ran out, clipping the top of the net as his final ball went long at 10-9.

Blowing a kiss to the stands, Jonghoon advances to the round of 16 in style, setting up an exciting showdown with compatriot Oh Jun-sung.

There was more Japanese success in the penultimate match of the day, with Hina Hayata successfully navigating her first challenge in Yokohama.

Facing off against seasoned pro Doo Hoi Kem, Hayata didn’t have it all her own way on Wednesday night, having to come to terms with a second game setback. But to her credit she responded brilliantly, producing an exemplary performance as one of Japan’s leading title contenders to see off Hooi Kem 11-5, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9.

However, a dream third Japanese win in succession would ultimately be denied in the evening’s closing showdown, as Wang Yidi completed an impressive turnaround from one game down to see off local hero Mima Ito 8-11, 11-1, 11-9, 11-3.

Going through all the emotions in an opening round nail-biter, Chen Yi is also safely through to the last 16 after fighting past an inspired Lee Eun-hyein 10-12, 10-12, 11-3, 12-10, 11-3 in a 58-minute marathon.

The former WTT Grand Smash finalist found herself up against the ropes for large parts of the contest, struggling to contain her Korean opponent in games one and two. Eun-hyein was playing like someone with nothing to lose, making her an extremely dangerous prospect.

Locking up the opening two games, Eun-hyein sat just one away from the biggest win of her career, but there was still plenty of work to do. Just as Chen Yi began mounting a comeback, her outing on Infinity ∞ Arena looked set to end prematurely, requiring a medical time out at seven points apiece in game four.

Clearly in some discomfort with her neck, there were naturally some questions as to whether we’d see Chen Yi return to the table. A few minutes of treatment behind the scenes did the trick, and remarkably Chen Yi’s game elevated to a whole new level. Fighting through the pain barrier, Chen Yi was in no mood to drag things out any longer, speeding through the decider 11-3 to put any doubts to bed.

Honoka Hashimoto very nearly followed in Chen Yi’s footsteps later in the session, coming close to a notable win over Miwa Harimoto, despite injury concerns of her own.

An awkward ankle roll led to Hashimoto calling for the physio in the post-game two break, but just like Chen Yi, she powered through the distraction. The World No.13 nearly went on to steal the show, opening up a commanding 1-5 lead in game four to inch closer to the finish line.

But top seed Harimoto would eventually pull through, blocking out the noise to hold off Hashimoto 11-5, 5-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5.