Tomokazu Zhang vowed to win gold in men's singles before the 2025 World Table Tennis Championships, and now he feels that he has suffered a complete defeat

At the 2025 World Table Tennis Championships held in Doha, Qatar, Japanese player Tomokazu Haramoto, who had boasted that he would aim for a gold medal before the game, was eliminated on the same day as the men's singles and men's doubles.

Zhang Benzhi and the men's singles top 32 stopped

Although Tomokazu Zhangmoto was ranked 26 places higher in the world, he lost 1:4 in the number of games and was out of the men's singles round of 32, setting the worst record in the men's singles at the World Championships, and he was also the highest (fourth) ranked in the world among the players who were eliminated in the top 32 of this year. On the same day, he teamed up with teammate Teruku Matsushima to play in the men's doubles, and also lost 2:3 to Romania and Spain in the round of 16, ending the tournament early after losing on both lines.

This is his fifth World Championships, and he made his debut in 2017 at the age of 14 to reach the quarterfinals of the men's singles, but he has not been able to surpass himself since. He once made a high-profile statement before this World Championships, saying that "the goal is only the gold medal", saying that he was deeply inspired by Brazil's Hugo winning the 2025 Macau World Cup, and hoped that he could become the next him, but in the end it backfired.

Zhang Benzhihe said before the game that he would win gold in men's singles

After the game, Tomokazu Zhang said that he thought he was indeed inferior to others: "I felt that I was completely defeated in this game. In a backhand-to-backhand match, my line was pinned down by the opponent, and his power was superior. "I'm sorry this time, but as long as I keep playing, the World Championships will have a chance to challenge every two years, so I'll pick myself up and try again in two years." ”