Tomokazu Harimoto vs Dang Qiu | World Cup Macao 2026

Paddle Play TV is back to review ITTF World Cup in Macau. Harimoto was able to top his group beating Nicholas Lum and Milosz Redzymski to advance here in the knockout stages. Facing him is the German top player who topped his group, Dang Cho. Dang Cho beat Chen Yuanyu and Dean Hsu to now face the Japanese star. This is round 16 and join us as we follow the World Cup series. Good plan there by Harimoto, serving on Dang Cho's backhand, returning the ball on the far left and middle. He created open space on Dang Cho's forehand, then attacked it on the right timing. Great tactics! Play angles, play open spaces. Harimoto is just making Dang Cho dance. Just look at his ball placement. A true testament to his world rank as the world's fourth best. Dang Cho staying strong, but the ball placements of Harimoto in this fight is just too good. He was composed despite the German taking the deuce lead. Can Dang Cho close this? That was a nasty cold-blooded first ball attack to stop Harimoto in this first game. Dang Cho takes game one and despite Harimoto's good placements and attacks, Dang Cho's attacks were more stable and more consistent. Dang Cho could have used his backhand on that one as he forced his forehand to attack that far left return of Harimoto, leaving the far right open. Sharp dagger attacks here by the German, but still, he is leaving too many open spaces. Too bad, Harimoto is choking this early, but let's see if he learned his lesson. Dang Cho's anticipation is just too good with that fast counter attack. If you can get a good timing on your counter attack close to the table, the ball would go back fast to the attacker leaving him out of neutral position as the recovery time was too short for the attacker to recover. Scores are so close and this is best of five. Dang Cho was just out of position that time as Harimoto took that score with a good backhand flick. The German took game two and Dang Cho leads two to zero. We are in the third game and this is a must win game for Harimoto as he will be eliminated if he loses this game three. Can he take this though? Their scores were too close in the past two games and let's find out if the Japanese star can come back from this. Look at that. It's now Dang Cho making the Japanese star dance as he ties the scores at seven here in game three. I would have not guessed this game will be too close and I am just surprised as to how this game is going. What was your early prediction on this matchup? Short touches and the net favored the Japanese star. That was a painful return for Dang Cho as the net saved the Japanese star that time. Harimoto now takes game three to get a point with him still trailing one to two against the German superstar. Anyway, all of Team Japan advance to the knockout round. The pressure is on as Harimoto is now making big moves against the German star. With Dang Cho leading two to one, the pressure is in him as Harimoto has mustered up all his skill to try and outscore Dang Cho. This is by far their closest matchup in this World Cup series and even in their career if I'm not mistaken. A near fatal error by Dang Cho as he opened his far forehand but good thing the ball did not go in. Dang Cho leads and this is the near death of the Japanese star. Anyway, I may have mentioned earlier that this is best of five. My bad, this is now the elimination rounds and this is best of seven so whoever wins four games will win the match. Still same error by Dang Cho. He relies too much on his forehand and his far forehand is always wide open. Harimoto's accuracy is going up and he now takes game four to tie the game at two to two. So close that they keep having a deuce battle. Who do you think will win with the scores tied at two? Seven to two and a big score lead by Dang Cho in this game five. If this is best of five, this would have been a decider lead by the German star. This is the biggest lead so far and Dang Cho might just take this game five. His attacks are just too sharp unlike for Harimoto that it is slower compared to his but it is more spinny. What is happening? Seven to two and now tied at seven. Harimoto is just ridiculously too determined right now. Another flick and Dang Cho just scored two points after that seven to two lead. This is by far the biggest comeback in a game in this knockout round. Tomokazu Harimoto took game five and he is now the one leading three to two against Dang Cho. Tomo was dominating the forehand touches to set up that flick. Harimoto felt the pressure on that one. A slow drive and even a mishap to have that ball go out of bounds. With the scores too close and with the pressure high, this just happens to even pro players. Another tight game. A bad umpire call as he called that a fault but the angle was just 25.71 degrees. If it is above 30 degrees it would have been a fault and the score goes to Dang Cho. Harimoto challenged and won that challenge against the umpire. Terrible call. A lot of terrible choices here by Harimoto as Dang Cho now takes this match into a decider. When you hesitate to do a move your mind told you to do, this happens. Always be firm with your decision. We are now in the decider and the first match in the men's division in the knockouts is thrilling. For sure many thrilling matches are yet to come. This is the World Cup in Macau. I saw these many times. Dang Cho is forcing his forehand on the far left leaving either his far right open or he is too close to his left side. Tomokazu just took advantage of that one. Harimoto is just shouting with his full force leading the game as Dang Cho is now becoming scoreless. This is the decider and the thrill is indeed just too high right now. Can he keep his momentum? Dang Cho might need to practice more and think about his left side shots although this has been one of the closest battle in the World Cup. Harimoto now takes the match as he eliminates his friend Dang Cho in this round 16. Congratulations to Harimoto and what do you think of their performance by far? This is Paddle Play TV.