Harimoto Tomokazu and Ito Mima among winners in Doha at inaugural WTT Star Contender event

Japan's Harimoto Tomokazu won the World Table Tennis (WTT) premium men's singles title in Qatar on Saturday (13th March).

The teenager defeated Germany's Ruwen Filus to clinch the inaugural WTT Star Contender Doha trophy at the Lusail Sports Arena.

It marked a good day for the Japanese players in the top level of competitions on the tour, with Ito Mima winning the women's singles, while South Korea fell just short of a clean sweep of the doubles events.

Japanese success at the start of Olympic Year

The event in the newly rebranded international tour calendar saw a total of 298 players taking part in the five disciplines - men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, as well as mixed doubles.

There were also big opportunities for new names to shine without Chinese players competing in Qatar, after pulling out of the tournament citing Covid-19 pandemic concerns.

This meant that world number five Harimoto Tomokazu was the highest-ranked competitor in the men's singles.

The 17-year-old prodigy won the best of seven final against Filus, who is 42nd in the world rankings.

The Japanese teenager opened up a two-point lead, before Filus won the third and fifth games to keep himself in contention. However, the 2018 Youth Olympic Games silver medallist raised his game in the sixth to beat Filus to the Star Contender Title 4-2 (11-9, 11-9, 12-14, 11-5, 7-11, 11-8).

Earlier on, Ito Mima gave Japan more to cheer about when she clinched the women's singles title with a 4-1 victory against Singapore's Feng Tianwei.

Rio 2016 team bronze medallist Ito, got off to a shaky start after losing the first game to the three-time Olympic medallist 10-12. However, the world number two immediately responded and won the next four games to clinch victory 4-1 (10-12, 12-10, 11-7, 11-8, 11-6)

The win rounded up a perfect outing in Doha for the 20-year-old who remained undefeated in the women's singles competition to add the WTT Star Contender Doha title to the WTT Contender Doha title she won in the previous week's tournament.

The men's doubles saw South Korea's Lee Sangsu and Jeoung Youngsik clinch the WTT Star Contender Doha title by defeating Spain's Alvaro Robles and Romania's Ovidiu Ionescu in the best-of-five finals. The Europeans took the opening game and pushed the Asians to a decider, however Lee and Jeoung came out on top winning the final 3-2 (2-11, 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 11-3)

South Korea also triumphed in the women's doubles with Shin Yubin and Jeon Jihee easing out a straight-games victory over Japan's Hirano Miu and Ishikawa Kasumi 3-0 (11-6, 12-10, 11-8)

The title will be a huge confidence boost for 16-year-old Shin who played alongside her 28-year-old partner Jeon. The teenager has been selected to represent her country at the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Games later in 2021. Shin will be 17 years old when she makes her debut, which would give her the title of the youngest ever South Korean table tennis player at an Olympic Games.

Cheng I-Ching and Lin Yun-Ju denied South Korea a clean sweep of the doubles trophies when they defeated Jeon Jihee and Lee Sangsu to the mixed doubles title.

The Chinese Taipei duo responded after losing the opening game to snatch victory 3-1 (10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 11-6).