World Table Tennis Championships mixed doubles Tomokazu Harimoto Hina Hayata pair advance to third round

On the third day of the World Table Tennis Championships in South Africa, gold medalists Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata defeated the Mexican pair in straight sets in the second round.

On the third day of the tournament in Durban, South Africa, the second round of men’s and women’s doubles was played on Day 3, and in the mixed doubles, Harimoto and Hayata, who are aiming to win the gold medal in this tournament after losing to the Chinese pair in the final of the previous tournament, faced the Mexican pair.

In the first game, Harimoto hit powerful forehands and backhands to overwhelm his opponent and take a 22-2 lead.

In the second game, Harimoto made a series of mistakes and was able to score a maximum of six points, but when Hayata made a strong handhold in the lane, Harimoto got back into his rhythm by utilizing the unique rotating receiver “Chiquita” and after scoring six consecutive points to draw, he also dominated the second race and took a 1-11 lead.

In the third game, Hayata continued his late second game momentum as he hit a shot into his opponent’s difficult fairway to take a 5-2 lead and advance to the third round in straight sets.

In men’s singles, world number 6 Maharu Yoshimura lost to world number 6 Liang Jingkun of China with a score of 13-11.

In Women’s Sigurds, World No. 3 Miu Hirano advanced to the third round with a 2-11 record over the No. 3 German player.

In the men’s doubles, Yukiya Uda and Junsuke Togami beat the Indian pair, and in the women’s doubles, Mima Ito and Hayata beat the South African pair and the Singaporean pair of Miyu Nagasaki and Kihara Miyu advanced to the third round.