On the sixth day of the Table Tennis World Championships in South Africa, the mixed doubles pair of Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata defeated the Chinese pair 6-3 in the semifinals to secure their second consecutive silver medal or better in this event.
On the sixth day of the tournament in Durban, South Africa, on the 6th, the fourth round of men's and women's singles was held, and the mixed doubles semi-finals of Harimoto and Hayata, who finished silver last time and are aiming to win the long-awaited gold medal at this tournament, faced the Chinese pair.
In the first game, they took a 1-7 lead with Hayata's good pattern of attacking from his serve, but from there, they struggled with the strong forehands of the Chinese pair and lost eight points in a row and dropped 3-8.
However, in the second game, Hayata's favorite fores were scored one after another, and after taking an 7-11 lead, in the third game, Harimoto hit a powerful fore to take an 2-11 lead.
In the fourth game, Harimoto scored a backhand, which is his specialty, and took the lead 6-3 to win the game count 1-8 to advance to the final, securing a silver medal or better for the second consecutive Games.
After the match, Harimoto said, "It was a tough match where we could have lost, but I'm really glad we were able to win," while Hayata said, "I want to do my best with a strong spirit until the end of the final."
In another match, defending silver medallists Hayata and Mima Ito lost in straight sets to the Chinese pair in the quarterfinals of the women's doubles, failing to win a medal in this event for the fourth consecutive time.
Meanwhile, the pair of Miyu Kihara and Miyu Nagasaki beat the Czech and Slovak pair 4-3 to advance to the semi-finals and secure their first medal.
In the men's singles, world No. 2 Harimoto defeated world No. 4 Italian in straight sets to advance to the quarterfinals.
Harimoto will face the world No. 174 Chinese player in his next match, and if he wins, he will win his first medal in men's singles in 5 years in Japan.
In the women's singles, world No. 44 Kihara faced world No. 16 and Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Chen Mu of China and lost the game count 4-2 and was eliminated in the fourth round.