Ma Long vs Tomokazu Harimoto | 2019 ITTF China Open Highlights (1/2) 

Enjoy!

Harimoto: I want to become the best player on this planet Ma Long: I'm not from this planet

Harimoto wins a point - SCREAMS Ma long wins a point - "I will let my fan base scream for me"

Ma Long saved my ears

Harimoto played very well. Just Ma Long is in another level.

You know that Harimoto's going to lose soon when he doesn't scream on winning a point!! I'm sure he knows it too.

"I don't push with backhand often, but when I do, I win the match" - Ma Long (2019)

First i thought that could be a close Match but then i realized its Ma Long.

Harimoto prepared very well for this match. The Japanese Coaches researched Ma Long style very well. You can see in first two sets, Harimoto even knew where the powerful fore hand shot of Ma Long will bring to ball to (take a look carefully, Hari was always ready for the kill shots of Ma Long). This made Ma Long felt hard and even doubted himself. Even more, Hari try him best to place the ball to the open corner of Ma Long to bring some supprises to Ma (which is the best way to counter Chinese's style), and it worked well. From first two sets, Ma Long was confused and made many unforced error since he felt everything was out of his control.. But just two sets. From the third to fifth set, he caught most of Harimoto ' s A-corner shots and made those even became Harimoto weekness (from the playing styles that threat Chinese player, it then became user's weekness, how great is Ma Long!). Also, Ma Long try more technical spin serves to control Harimoto's playing tempo, also made his forehand shots more spinny. From being the possitive one, Harimoto no longer could read Ma Long actions since Ma was changing to another style. And with this, Ma Long debunked the mystery of "Harimoto's improvement". Actually, compare with the match in Japan Open 2018, Harimoto is not much better in term of adapting another player's playing style, maybe he is better in his forehand technique and reflexing (or maybe his mental, I don't know, he still played bad in big events), but all I saw was just the movement in research of Ma Long's style from Japanese coaches. Remember in 2019 Asian cup, Harimoto applied the same winning tatics in the previous Asian cup to Fan Zhendong and totally failed and got fuck up. So, in my point of view, Harimoto is not improving just as his fans praise him, and he needs a long way to make him at the level of Fan Zhendong. When he can defeat Fan more often, then think about surpassing Ma Long.

Ma Long said to the interviewer Harimoto deserved applause beautiful word from a champion !

Ma Long's calmness is unbelievable

Ma long is just unreachable and GOAT. He's just removing any doubt with those last events. No one in the history could score that win-loss record

Ma Long know one thing, to win a match not just offensive, defensive is also important.

Ma Long's short game and control on the serve receive is incredible this game. He returns basically everything to forehand or wide forehand so Harimoto can't use his banana flick as his main weapon. Even when Harimoto gets a spinny loop to open with, Ma Long just counters back with his own forehand. This is why Ma Long is the smartest player alive.

It's intense for the first 2 games, but then Ma Long spots Harimoto's weakness and attacks him harshly. That's why ML is the GOAT.

Ma long is the greatest to ever play the game he is poetry in motion

Harimoto should open a karaoke bar.

Even though winning 4-1, Malong was really challeged in the first 2 sets, Harimoto‘s strength is his first three stokes, just not strong enough for the rally against malong, but you can imagine he is only 15 yrs old and will become stronger and stonger over time..

@5:50 , malong did the same thing to harimoto on harimoto's serve

Thank you Ma Long you save the world

The kid is special and Ma Long still the goat. Great game !

Harimoto's serve and block are very good. And he is still 15 years old

man the first 2 sets were really close. Harimoto played really well (and he's only 15?!!!) but Ma Long is just too steady and made less errors later on

normally a tabletennisplayer screams when he deserved the point NOT when the other makes a mistake thats the difference

Both started out so strong,the first 2 games were extremely close and I am amazed by the mental toughness of both of them.

The dragon is always the best remedy to stop that screamer, yes!!!

Thanks Ma long for shutting grunts of Harimoto. Last 2 sets were quite peaceful to watch.

Ma Long, what can we say....a humble, capable, unimaginable and indestructible legend. Win or lose, we still admire him. Incredible pro level. Ironically still kicking young or fit axx at his age, lol.

Winning the 2nd game was crucial, that disrupted Harimoto momentum and slow down the game a bit, and Ma Long never looked back. Congrats to Ma Long!

What a match! Ma Long is just amazing to watch.

This match was so good. So many highlight points.

Harimoto play excellent, he is going to grow. Ma Long is very strong. This is a very good game. Thanks for uploading.

Ma Long pulls so many incredible shots from his waist. Sometimes it looks as if he is too late, and then booom.. a topspin out of his pocket.

the kid's definitely getting a lot better.. seriously poses a challenge at tokyo 2020

well played tomokazu !!! To play like this in this age is unbelievable Congratulations ma long . !!!

Both of them are great. But I like Malong's play. And Harimoto is too noisy.

Named also as "Dragon ball super battle of the gods"

11:53これが世界チャンピオン

What a match. This kid impresses me more and more each time I see him play

Ma Long showing his great adaptability to adjust in a game here. Finds the weakness of the opponent then exploit it. Has the nerve/mentality to counter kill lethal shots coming over to gain psychological advantage. That's what makes him so outstanding above the rest of them.

What a match, good come back by Ma Long. Hi from Australia

Wonderful MA long...!!

ma long is so in sync with his strokes its amazing, his kinetic chain link foot to racket is amazing

Perfect example of nothing can beat the experience

In the interview after the match, Ma Long praised Harimoto and said Harimoto would be the biggest opponent of China in the future 10 years. I am a Chinese, but I respect Harimoto for his strength.

Ma Long forehand is powerful weapon.

So glad to see the Dragon win this match and spare us the stress from hearing Harimoto

I love both of them 😍😍

HARIMOTO: I will get on your nerves by screaming after every point I win. MA LONG: I will get on your nerves with my technique and composure!

Harimato played very well. But ma long is very clever. Very talent.

dam these two are just raw emotions i love it.

love him or hate him, Screamamoto has got some skills, but Ma Long is not the dictator for no reason. Amazing game!

Yes Malong (The Dragon 🐉) wins over (The Screamer boy) Harimoto Malong was in so pressure in first 2 rallies... Great work malong❤️❤️

This kid has good skill. His next lesson is - How to Shut Up

Amazing performance! 🙌

Ma Long.!! GOAT.!! DICTATOR! ! GOD of tt.!!

Feels like ML is doing sth different now, avoiding extremely violent movements to protect his knee from injury again.

Any player that reaches with ma long has some great abilities too ,this Japanese swordsman will encourage all other Japanese players,jun,koki,and others have the skills to play,this guy has the will to win,that what ma long has above all other Chinese and players worldwide,ma long is Phenomenal

did you see 51sec. ma long delays his swing.. wow. incredible.

The first set was amazing, very entertaining

Ma Long is the god of table tennis.

Ma long = king

Ma Long's discipline is amazing.

Ma Long is from another universe which has an unbeliaveble level.

i can imagine 1 year of further improvement won't be enough. olympics maybe too early, and ma long probably still on that level then

10:12 Harimoto didn't scream !!

Amazing duece!

Increible nivel

People didn't realize that but in order to crush Screamoto, you definitely have to beat in on the first game. Then he will start doubting himself and more and more unforced errors occur. As if you can recall, during T-League vs Lin Jun Un, during junior cup vs Wong Chu Qin, during Qatar Open vs Mattias Falcked by Ma Long, and in WTTC vs An Un Hui. He loses at the first game, then he loses the match.

I am a big fan of FZD and I used to think that if he would meet Hari in Tokyo, he would be able to stop him. But now I am not sure any more. Look at the first 4 games, Ma had to give everything he has to win and win by a ever so small edge. If Hari can improve his mental game a bit more, don't crash under pressure, I will be truely worried for the CNT in Tokyo.

Ma Long vs Harimoto q gran duelo , Ma Long eres increible.

They pretty much played each even but ma long used his experience to his advantage and realized he had to adjust slightly to take control of the match. Well though Harimoto!!

when Harimoto plays, I turn off the sound

Best of the best!

馬龍真是地表最強的男單乒乓王 真是無人能敵

Harimoto had a great game plan to bring Ma forward with a relatively weak flick against slow floater balls and counter as fast as he could. He was never going to match Ma with a mid court game. Also HM used his flick kills to good effect with unpredictability. But since Ma is not from this planet, he wore him down with alien rules.

I'm so happy Ma Long won:)

Incredible malong

I’m a fan of harimoto and ma long. Both of them has showed the quality of pro tt player. One moment i cheered for harimoto but then my heart wants ma long to win. I just love them both. What a great player they are!

11:08, 11:53

Ma is the God of TT!

Harimoto played very well. It was not an easy win for Ma Long but he played smart. I am so glad to see a FH dominant player like Ma Long can still thrive these days!!

Dragon is back with glory! Totally a different level

Once a king always a king 👑

Still a more interesting game than Budapest 2019 finals against Falk

That was one heck of a match

Very impressed with moto

Ma Long the legend!!!

You fought well Harimoto, but hold on to that defeat. The Dragon strikes again.

16 years and he will be great player

What a spectacular game! Harimoto was fancy, passionate and unique. However, Ma Long without fancy skill is just too strong. Unbelievable...

6:30 MaLong is such a god

God bless Ma Long-Amen.

this is somewhat satisfying

Long Live The King !

Harimoto improved a lot ... his footwork, fh .. his bh is already strong.. Gonna keep supporting him.. great player

Ma Long's forehand is a weapon with mass destruction and his backhand is Aegis combat system。other players need to find shelter in despair!

What is the problem with Hashimoto's scream guys? He is 16 years old and No.5 in the world. He is playing the best players (maybe in history) and give them real fights, and he tried his best to win every point. His strong will maybe the reason why he is that good. Let's enjoy the game and let him be him seft. Nothing wrong with that. I think he may go down as the Greatest all the time. The sport is very difficult and players need focus every second. I just purely admire him.

Grandissimo Ma Long !

This match was very close. Ma Long was worried. If Harimoto had won the second game. He's improving rapidly and getting stronger and it's a good thing for table tennis.