[Tactical Analysis] Tomokazu Harimoto vs Sora Matsushima ① | Matsushima conquers Harimoto's receive. Limiting receives with "serve spin"

The match between Tomokazu Harimoto and Sora Matsushima held at WTT Champions Yokohama.

In this clash between two of the leading players in Japanese men's table tennis, Tomokazu Harimoto won 4-2.

However, it would be a bit of a waste to simply end this match as "a match Harimoto won 4-2."

What was extremely interesting about this match was that both players repeatedly responded to each other's tactics during the game.

Harimoto conquers Matsushima's serve with his receive.

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Matsushima changes the spin or placement of his serve.

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Harimoto responds to that change.

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Matsushima changes his serve again.

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Harimoto changes his receive again.

In this way, rather than a simple clash of techniques, it was a battle of tactics between world-class players, asking:

"What is the opponent aiming for?"
"How do I neutralize that aim?"
"How will the opponent respond further?"

In this first part, I would like to look at what kind of countermeasures Matsushima launched against Harimoto's receive.

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Two Japanese players competing at the world's top level

First, to talk about this match, it is essential to understand where both players stand.

Sora Matsushima was ranked 3rd in the world (at the time).

He won consecutive men's singles titles at the All Japan Championships in 2025 and 2026, and was the runner-up at the World Cup.

He can be called one of the most momentum-filled players in the world right now.

Furthermore, Matsushima excels at high-speed backhand rallies and is also skilled at moving from the backhand side to the forehand to attack.

In contrast, Tomokazu Harimoto was ranked 5th in the world (at the time).

His highest world ranking is 2nd.

In 2025, he won a Grand Smash and has competed in two consecutive Olympic Games.

He is the ace of Japanese men's table tennis, having competed at the top of the world for many years.

Those are the world's 3rd and 5th ranked players.

Two players representing Japan today clashed at WTT Champions Yokohama.

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Harimoto won the match 4-2

Tomokazu Harimoto won the match 4-2.

Looking at the flow of each game:

Games 1 & 2: Harimoto

Games 3 & 4: Matsushima
Games 5 & 6: Harimoto
That was the progression.

At first glance, it looks like a match where:

Harimoto takes the early lead

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Matsushima catches up
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Harimoto pulls away at the end
However, in reality, both players' tactics changed in each game.

The particularly important points were:

* Serve spin

* Serve placement

* Harimoto's receive options
* As a result, which player can bring the rally into their preferred style
These were the factors.
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Games 1 & 2 | Harimoto's receive seals Matsushima's long serve

First, in the early stages, Harimoto showed a very high-quality receive.

What was particularly impressive was his receive against Matsushima's long serve to the backhand side.

Harimoto lifted the ball smoothly with his backhand while applying solid spin, returning it to Matsushima's forehand side.

What is important here is not just that he "returned it to the forehand side."

Because Harimoto applied strong spin, the ball would drop due to the spin by the time it reached Matsushima's hand.

Therefore, it became difficult for Matsushima to catch the ball at a high contact point.

As a result, it made it difficult for Matsushima to immediately transition to an attack from his long serve.

And the quality of this receive also affected Matsushima's serve distribution itself.

Although Matsushima usually uses long serves frequently in his distribution, he only used two long serves in the first game.

This has a very significant meaning.

Harimoto is not simply saying,

"I will return it if a long serve comes."

By creating a situation where "even if I serve long, Harimoto will return it with a high-quality receive," Matsushima himself found it difficult to choose the long serve.

In other words, Harimoto restricted Matsushima's serve tactics themselves through his receive.

This was one of the major factors why Harimoto took the initiative in the first and second games.

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Matsushima changed the "serve spin"

However, Matsushima did not just end by reducing his long serves.

What Matsushima did from here was to change the serve itself.

The point was the type of serve spin.

In the first and second games, Matsushima used vertical spin serves.

Against this serve, Harimoto was able to have multiple options, such as:

* Stop

* Push

* Other receives

In other words, for Harimoto, the freedom of his receive was relatively high.

Therefore, from the third game onwards, Matsushima changed to side-spin serves.
There was a clear aim here.
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Games 3 & 4 | Matsushima limits Harimoto's receive

What Matsushima aimed for in the third and fourth games was:

"To gather Harimoto's receives to his own backhand side."

To achieve this, the focus was on:

* Side-spin serves to the forehand short

* Serves that may or may not go out to the forehand side

What is important here is not the simple story that:

"Because I served to the forehand side, Harimoto's return went to the backhand side."

Matsushima limited the very receives Harimoto could choose through the placement and spin of his serve.

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Side-spin serve to the forehand short
First, Matsushima serves with side spin to the forehand short.

This side spin makes it difficult for Harimoto to receive freely.

While handling it on the forehand side, Harimoto is forced to choose between:

Pushing to Matsushima's backhand side or using a Chiquita.

In other words, Matsushima was aiming not only to "make Harimoto handle it on the forehand side," but also to "make him return it from that forehand side to Matsushima's backhand side."

This allows Matsushima to wait for Harimoto's receive on his own backhand side.

And what Matsushima excels at is the development from here.

High-speed rallies with his backhand.

Furthermore, moving to the forehand side to match Harimoto's return.

In other words, he can create a development that is very favorable for himself:

Gather Harimoto's receive to Matsushima's backhand side

→ Touch it with the backhand that Matsushima excels at

→ Move around if necessary

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Binding Harimoto even with "out or not out" serves

Furthermore, Matsushima combined serves that might or might not go out of the table to the forehand side.

This was also a very important tactic.

If the serve goes out of the table, it becomes difficult for Harimoto to handle it with his backhand.

Therefore, he ends up lifting the ball with his forehand to return it.

On the other hand, if the serve does not go out of the table, he ends up pushing with his forehand.

In other words, in either case, he can make Harimoto receive on the forehand side:

Goes out of the table → Lift with forehand

Does not go out of the table → Push with forehand

Furthermore, this distribution can also reduce the situations where Harimoto can use his Chiquita.
In other words, Matsushima was limiting not only "which receive to use," but even "which technique can be used to receive in the first place."
And he combines that with serves to the forehand short.

In this way, he makes Harimoto handle it on the forehand side and ultimately return it to Matsushima's backhand side.

Matsushima had significantly narrowed down the freedom of Harimoto's receive through his serves.

With this tactic working, Matsushima won the 3rd and 4th games in a row.

The flow of the match changed significantly here.

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Matsushima's aim is "to create his own favorable rally"

Organizing Matsushima's tactics up to this point, a very simple structure emerges.

What Matsushima wanted to do was not simply "make Harimoto receive with his forehand."

The ultimate goal was to gather Harimoto's receive to his own backhand side and bring it into his own favorable rally.

To do that, he created a sequence of:
Change serve spin.

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Reduce Harimoto's receive options.

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Make him handle it on the forehand side.

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Make him return it to Matsushima's backhand side.

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Touch it first with the backhand.

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Move around if necessary.

This cannot be explained just by saying "his serve is good."

He was designing up to the 3rd and 4th balls after the serve.

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However, side spin also had a weakness

Here, one problem also emerges in Matsushima's tactics.

That is, side-spin serves are easier to attack with a Chiquita than vertical-spin serves.

Matsushima succeeded in limiting Harimoto's receive by using side-spin serves in the 3rd and 4th games.

However, on the other hand, the option of "attacking with a Chiquita" remained for Harimoto.

Even though he had limited Harimoto's receive with side-spin serves, the possibility arose that the spin would be used to take the initiative with a Chiquita.

And in the latter part of the 4th game, Harimoto began to poke at that.

Harimoto began to provide a new answer to the problem Matsushima created of "limiting Harimoto's receive."

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Part 1 Summary

Looking at it so far, we can understand why Matsushima changed the flow in the 3rd and 4th games.

In the early stages, Harimoto restricted Matsushima's serve tactics with high-quality receives against long serves.

So Matsushima changed the spin and placement of his serves.

And he created a new tactic of:

Limiting Harimoto's receive to the forehand side

→ Making him return it to Matsushima's backhand side

→ Bringing it into his own favorable backhand/move-around play

This worked, and Matsushima won the 3rd and 4th games in a row.

However, it does not end here.

Because Matsushima used side-spin serves, a new option was born for Harimoto this time.

The Chiquita.

The moment Matsushima thought he had conquered Harimoto's receive, Harimoto began to provide an answer to Matsushima's new serve tactics.

And in the 5th game.

Matsushima changes his serve again.

What begins from here is the greatest tactical battle of this match, which is "layering countermeasures on top of countermeasures."

In the second part, I will look in detail at how Harimoto broke down Matsushima's tactics.