Kakeru Sone

Kakeru Sone (born December 1, 2002 ) is a Japanese table tennis player who is considered one of the greatest talents of his nation.

Sone has been playing in Germany since 2017 and for 1. FC Saarbrücken since 2019 .

Career

The 14-year-old son moved to TSG Kaiserslautern for the 2016/2017 season . Here he first played in the reserve team in the Oberliga Südwest in position one. After the 2017/2018 season, he had a positive balance of 9: 0 in 5 appearances. He left TSG Kaiserslautern again for the 2017/2018 season.

With the Japanese team he took part in many youth tournaments. In 2017 he was able to win the Polish Junior and Cadet Open in singles. With the team he was also able to win the Nigeria Junior and Cadet Open .

In 2017 he also took part in the ITTF youth tour , played in teams and singles and reached many semi-finals. Here he mostly had a positive balance and only lost 23 singles in the 2017 calendar year.

The year 2018 started for Sone at the Czesh Junior and Cadet Open . Here he was able to defeat Bundesliga player Cristian Pletea in three sets. At the China Junior and Cadet Open , Sone caused a sensation when he did not lose a single one of his 13 individual games and won individual titles with ease. In the same month, in July 2018, he also took part in the men's Korea Open for the first time , where he reached the semifinals in the U-21 competition and only failed when the eventual winner Ham Yu Song was won .

At the World Junior Championship he failed in round 3 with 1: 4 sets to Jeremy Hazin .

2019 didn't start out so well for Sone. The 16 year old Japanese suffered many first round defeats. Sone survived the preliminary round of the ITTF Challenge in Serbia , but failed in the main draw to Juan Lamarid 3: 4.

At the Japan Open in his home country, Sone did not get through the first round. He failed 4-1 to An Yan.

For the 2019/2020 season he moved back to a German club, 1. Fc Saarbrücken . Here plays in first position in the second team of the Bundesliga reserve. At the Asian Junior and Cadet Championship Sone reached the final, but lost it with 0: 4 sets against Yingbin Xu .

Kakeru Sone was even able to qualify for the German Open in October , where he narrowly failed in round 1 to Steffen Mengel .

On December 8, 2019, Sone played for the first time for the second team of 1. Fc Saarbrücken , he was able to win both games here. 4 days later he was allowed to compete in the Champions League , where he could defeat Yevhen Pryshchepa with 3-0 sets.

Until the end of the season in March 2020, Sone won 7 singles in the second team of Fc Saarbrücken, where he only lost one. In doubles he mostly played with the young Romanian Cristian Pletea .

successes

• Polish Junior and Cadet Open (winner with the team 2017)
• China Junior and Cadet Open (Winner 2018)
• Asian Junior and Cadet Championship (Final 2019)