No superstar is assured a victory in the WTT Europe Smash 2025.
Not even Tomokazu Harimoto (Men’s No. 3), the fourth-seeded player in this tournament and recent winner of the WTT Champions Yokohama 2025. Harimoto fell to Korea’s An Jae-hyun (Men’s No. 17) after five games of back-and-forth table tennis in the Round of 16 (8-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-9, 8-11).
Despite Harimoto’s best efforts to take Game 1, An struck the first blow of the match with an 11-8 victory. Harimoto made up for the loss with a dominant performance in Game 2, tying up the match by a score of 11-4.
Harimoto once again found himself trailing this match after An took Game 3, 11-7. And once again, Harimoto evened the score 2-2, with the hope that his 11-9 victory could be the first step towards a remarkable comeback to secure a spot in the quarterfinals.
An wouldn't let Harimoto realize those hopes, dominating Game 5 to force a 10-4 match point. Harimoto crawled his way back to cut An’s lead to 10-8, but An earned his 11th point of the game right afterward, the final point he needed to send Harimoto home.
This relatively early exit comes in the midst of what has been an incredible year for Harimoto. Before winning the WTT Champions Yokohama 2025, the Japanese star reached the Finals of the WTT United States Smash 2025 and won multiple WTT Contender tournaments this year.
Harimoto’s success this year has earned him his 6,000th point in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)'s most recent world rankings update, where he passed Brazil’s Hugo Calderano to become the third-ranked men’s singles player in the world. As of this article’s publication, Harimoto is the highest-ranked men’s singles player worldwide to bow out of the WTT Europe Smash 2025.
But An’s victory is certainly no fluke. This victory over Harimoto earned him his third quarterfinal appearance of the year, in addition to Yokohama and the ITTF and World Table Tennis Championships Finals Doha 2025.
An could take this impressive run even further if he defeats the winner of Sweden’s Truls Möregårdh (Men’s No. 7) and Korea’s Cho Dae-song (Men’s No. 67). An’s next match will take place at Malmö Arena in Malmö, Sweden, with one of four coveted spots in the semifinals of the WTT Europe Smash 2025 on the line.
*All ITTF rankings are as of Week 34, updated on Aug. 19 2025
