Not to be nice, but to keep the difference between him and his senpai from being too obvious, probably to prevent what did happen in the end. See, I see that as how Oishi--and probably most people--are interpreting it, and hey, I might be wrong to disagree. But I find it hard to believe that Tezuka anticipated the outcome but didn't realize that it could be far worse for his senpai to find out afterwards. If he had played left-handed, he'd have won 6-0 instead of 6-2; not a major difference, and if people were going to be pissed off at him, they'd be pissed off either way. Finding out afterwards, probably when he played someone better or they read about his elementary champion days, makes the insult that much worse for the delay.
The way I see it, Tezuka didn't expect anything nearly so severe, and so he figured he might as well get some right-handed practice in, and let his opponents think what they like. At the most, there would have been grumbling senpai-tachi, and he wouldn't be allowed onto regulars until the usual time for freshmen. (Note that when Oishi expresses worry over how the senpai will react to getting beaten, before he even knows about the left-handed thing, Tezuka doesn't seem particularly concerned.) Neither of these would have bothered him overmuch; he's not one to need others' approval, and I don't think he cared enough about Seigaku yet to really fight the restrictions on freshmen. (The ambition for leading the club to nationals came out of his conversation with Oishi, and Yamato-buchou's inspiration led to the emotional attachment.) He would have been perfectly content to bide his time until the third-years graduated. This is where I see the similarity with Ryoma; if Tezuka hadn't made an exception for him and put him into the ranking matches, he too would have contented himself with the usual freshman things, plus asking his senpai for matches whenever possible. Granted, Ryoma's far more likely to use his "I am not right-handed!" thing to provoke, but he's never used it against his teammates in that way. Though it does get hard to judge, since I get the impression that the current Seigaku regulars are far better than the ones when Tezuka was a freshman, so Ryoma simply can't use his right hand against them--though he does use it against non-regular senpai. Also, Ryoma would probably have made it very clear that he was bored out of his mind with the grunt work, but that jives with my impression of his simply being more likely to say such things aloud than Tezuka would be, even if they're both thinking the same thing.
I guess really the main difference between the two is just that Ryoma's much more openly cocky. He can't resist poking people and pushing their buttons, unless he genuinely respects them (and even then, he'll be cheeky occasionally). Tezuka's got himself under much better control, partially because he's been taught to respect his senpai, partially because he's seen the damage that not thinking ahead can do. Tezuka also has a very strong emotional attachment to Seigaku, courtesy of Yamato, which I think is probably his first real attachment ever. Like Ryoma, he doesn't have many close friends, nor does he really relate well to people. But he learned to love Seigaku, and through that, to really care about his teammates. I think he's trying to pass this lesson on to Ryoma (at least in the manga arc; don't know about the later anime), and killing two birds with one stone as regards replacing Ryoma's fixation on beating Nanjiroh. It seems to be working; Ryoma went after Momo when he was sulking over being dropped, he actually cheered for Inui at a match, and I think a lot of his energy and will against Hiyoshi, who's supposed to be quite a good opponent but got torn to shreds, came from wanting to avenge Tezuka's injury. In the anime, he's pissed off that he has to leave his match with Atobe as a tie, and I think it's for the same reason.
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See, I see that as how Oishi--and probably most people--are interpreting it, and hey, I might be wrong to disagree. But I find it hard to believe that Tezuka anticipated the outcome but didn't realize that it could be far worse for his senpai to find out afterwards. If he had played left-handed, he'd have won 6-0 instead of 6-2; not a major difference, and if people were going to be pissed off at him, they'd be pissed off either way. Finding out afterwards, probably when he played someone better or they read about his elementary champion days, makes the insult that much worse for the delay.
The way I see it, Tezuka didn't expect anything nearly so severe, and so he figured he might as well get some right-handed practice in, and let his opponents think what they like. At the most, there would have been grumbling senpai-tachi, and he wouldn't be allowed onto regulars until the usual time for freshmen. (Note that when Oishi expresses worry over how the senpai will react to getting beaten, before he even knows about the left-handed thing, Tezuka doesn't seem particularly concerned.) Neither of these would have bothered him overmuch; he's not one to need others' approval, and I don't think he cared enough about Seigaku yet to really fight the restrictions on freshmen. (The ambition for leading the club to nationals came out of his conversation with Oishi, and Yamato-buchou's inspiration led to the emotional attachment.) He would have been perfectly content to bide his time until the third-years graduated. This is where I see the similarity with Ryoma; if Tezuka hadn't made an exception for him and put him into the ranking matches, he too would have contented himself with the usual freshman things, plus asking his senpai for matches whenever possible. Granted, Ryoma's far more likely to use his "I am not right-handed!" thing to provoke, but he's never used it against his teammates in that way. Though it does get hard to judge, since I get the impression that the current Seigaku regulars are far better than the ones when Tezuka was a freshman, so Ryoma simply can't use his right hand against them--though he does use it against non-regular senpai. Also, Ryoma would probably have made it very clear that he was bored out of his mind with the grunt work, but that jives with my impression of his simply being more likely to say such things aloud than Tezuka would be, even if they're both thinking the same thing.
I guess really the main difference between the two is just that Ryoma's much more openly cocky. He can't resist poking people and pushing their buttons, unless he genuinely respects them (and even then, he'll be cheeky occasionally). Tezuka's got himself under much better control, partially because he's been taught to respect his senpai, partially because he's seen the damage that not thinking ahead can do. Tezuka also has a very strong emotional attachment to Seigaku, courtesy of Yamato, which I think is probably his first real attachment ever. Like Ryoma, he doesn't have many close friends, nor does he really relate well to people. But he learned to love Seigaku, and through that, to really care about his teammates. I think he's trying to pass this lesson on to Ryoma (at least in the manga arc; don't know about the later anime), and killing two birds with one stone as regards replacing Ryoma's fixation on beating Nanjiroh. It seems to be working; Ryoma went after Momo when he was sulking over being dropped, he actually cheered for Inui at a match, and I think a lot of his energy and will against Hiyoshi, who's supposed to be quite a good opponent but got torn to shreds, came from wanting to avenge Tezuka's injury. In the anime, he's pissed off that he has to leave his match with Atobe as a tie, and I think it's for the same reason.
*continued in next comment*