Recap: 2020 Japan All-Star Dream Match Played Under Strict COVID Measures

A very late recap of the 2020 Japan All-star Dream Match which was held on 14 September headlined by Kasumi Ishikawa, Hina Hayata, Harimoto Tomokazu, Koki Niwa and other 9 top Japanese players.

After 5 months of waiting out a pandemic postponement, the Japanese players finally got a chance to play real table tennis in front of a (virtual) crowd who would probably be impatiently waiting in front of the TV set or their PC 30 minutes prior to the match is streamed. The 2020 Japan All-star Dream Match demonstrated the new normal for sports competitions, spectator-free, no handshakes, social distancing practices applied and mask-on for athletes when they are not playing. In order to recreate that match atmosphere, the organizer placed a robot which would clap and cheer for the athletes. (Good job Japan, the land of the rising robotics!) 

While COVID precautionary measures were strictly followed, the competition format of the match did not keep to the usual ones. The 2020 Japan All-star Dream Match is a team match which was comprised of 2 parts, Team Japan Vs Team T-League and Men Vs Women. In the Team Japan Vs Team T-League match, players played a no-deuce game of 11 points and the winner of each game scores 1 point for the team. While in the Men Vs Women match, the women's team enjoyed a 4-point advantage in each game and a 1-point tie-break would be played when the score leveled at 1-1 after 2 games. 

I personally think the match is simply too short to give us a comprehensive idea of what has everyone been up to and the absence of Tokyo Olympian-to-be, Mima Ito, Miu Hirano and Jun Mizutani might slightly tarnish the impressiveness of the meet but the light-hearted atmosphere and strong team spirit were good enough to make up those semi-significant blemishes. Anyways, with limited number of competitions out there, I am going to treat every upcoming competition as if the World Championships!

Results

Team Japan Vs Team T-League
Team Japan	4-5	Team T-League
Harimoto Tomokazu	11-4	Jin Takuya
Hina Hayata	10-11	Miyuu Kihara
Yukiya Uda	4-11	Hibike Tazoe
Miyu Nagasaki	4-11	Kyoka Idesawa
Koki Niwa	11-10	Mizuki Oikawa
Kasumi Ishikawa	8-11	Mori Sakura
Harimoto Tomokazu	11-10	Shunsuke Togami
Hina Hayata	11-10	Miyu Kato
Masataka Morizono	3-11	Mizuki Oikawa
Men Vs Women
Men	1-2 (10-11, 11-10, 0-1)	Women

Full Match

Coming Up: There were sources saying that the 2020 Chinese Nationals will be held in early October. Big names, Ma Long, Xu Xin, Lin Gaoyuan, Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu are expected to compete!!! I wish I could tell you more about the Nationals but that's all I've heard so far. You know, the CTTA has the tendency to slip bits and pieces of information at the very last minute. So...do check out this blog from time to time, especially in early October for further updates on the 2020 Chinese Nationals.