Sora Matsushima was made to work hard for his opening round victory in Yokohama. (Photo WTT)
The Japanese faithful had reason to cheer on Tuesday night, as top seed Sora Matsushima successfully cleared the opening round at WTT Champions Yokohama 2026, holding off Zhou Qihao 14-12, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9.
Matsushima was greeted by rapturous applause following his historic title win at United States Smash 2026, returning home as one of the main title contenders at Yokohama BUNTAI.
He met Zhou Qihao at the opening hurdle, a player who upstaged Matsushima 3-1 in their last meeting at WTT Contender Almaty 2025, and their latest showdown was tight from start to finish, with 26 points being required to settle game one.
Matsushima saved two Game Points to steal the opener 14-12, before doubling his advantage to two games with a successful comeback from 4-7 down
On another day, Zhou Qihao could very well have won this match, working his way into promising positions in each and every game. Despite striking back in the third, the Chinese player ultimately left Infinity ∞ Arena ruing his luck, falling short in the crunch moments of the match as Matsushima gave the home fans the win they craved.
That win helped to lift the mood inside Yokohama BUNTAI, curing Japanese heartache with the fans having seen Shunsuke Togami exit in the match that took prior to Matsushima’s.
WTT Star Contender Ljubljana 2026 champion Togami had been flying high in the lead-up to Yokohama, and he was trending nicely at the start of Tuesday night’s match, leading Benedikt Duda after a positive opening game display. But it was Duda who would have the last laugh, spoiling the Japanese party with a clutch 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6 victory after 43 minutes.
Meanwhile, the pick of the session’s Women’s Singles action was Sreeja Akula, who finally laid claim to her first match win on the WTT Champions stage.
In each of her seven previous WTT Champions outings, Akula succumbed to round of 32 defeats. But this time the Indian player finally seized her moment in the spotlight, showing great fighting spirit to stage a come from behind 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 12-10 victory over Sofia Polcanova.
Joao Geraldo has pulled off the first big upset of WTT Champions Yokohama 2026, knocking out the breakout star of the season Wen Ruibo in dramatic fashion 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8.
Making his first WTT Champions appearance in four years, Wildcard entry Geraldo entered the match with nothing to lose. Outranked by World No.12 Wen by some 21 positions in the ITTF World Rankings, you wouldn’t have known that by the way the Portuguese player represented himself on Infinity ∞ Arena.
Fearless from the off, Geraldo had a steely resolve, looking completely unfazed by a 4-7 deficit in the opener as he quickly worked his way back to 8-8. Putting the pedal to the metal, the World No.33 capitalised on his late flurry of points, banking three more in a row to take game one 11-8.
It came as no surprise to see Wen hit back in the second game, and the 19-year-old was never going to go quietly into the night, keeping up the intensity in the third and fourth games. But in spite of that, it wasn’t to be the Chinese star’s day as Geraldo let out an enormous roar, punching his ticket to the last 16 in stunning fashion.
Breaking out into epic celebration after the match, inspired by his favourite superhero Spider-Man, Joao Geraldo is swinging into the second round of a WTT Champions event for the first time.
“I’m a big fan of Spider-Man. He has inspired me a lot since I was a kid. He was my favourite superhero, and it gave me some kind of confidence to believe I have superpowers or some supernatural things I can do in my game. And if you have this confidence that you are a superhero, then you can beat anyone.” Joao Geraldo
Elsewhere in the Men’s Singles draw, Anders Lind survived a nerve-wracking showdown against Kuo Guan-Hong, keeping his cool in the pressure-cooker environment to stop the 17-year-old’s comeback heroics late on 11-6, 11-6, 8-11, 7-11, 11-9.
