12-year-old faces world No 1 table tennis player Ma Long
Friday 23 October 2015 15:45, UK
A 12-year-old Japanese table tennis player has been drawn to face the world No 1 Ma Long in the first round of the Polish Open.
Tomokazu Harimoto faces the most daunting of tasks after becoming the youngest player to qualify for the main draw of an International Table Tennis Federation world tour event.
Harimoto, ranked 286th in the world, comes up against China's Olympic and world champion Ma Long after defeating 32-year-old Croatian Tan Ruiwu in a seven-game match in Warsaw on Thursday.
"I won my group here, I'm happy because I won against Tan Ruiwu," Harimoto told the ITTF website. "If I attacked against him, everything was good but I had problem when I had to defend."
Harimoto started playing the game at the age of two.
"When I was a little boy I sat on a chair and tried play table tennis; now I practise nine hours every day."
