Darius Movileanu (Photo WTT)
Darius Movileanu’s WTT Grand Smash main draw debut has launched the Romanian into dreamland, as he beat the No.16 Hiroto Shinozuka in 11-4, 11-8, 11-4 at the China Smash table tennis championships.
Movileanu was forced to go to five games in his opening two qualifying matches and beat No.2 Joe Seyfried in the second before taking out Europe Smash – Sweden 2025 Men’s Doubles champion Baldwin Chan 3-1 to confirm his first Main Draw appearance.
Despite admitting he was “exhausted” after three epic battles, the 21-year-old had more than enough left in the tank to stun WTT Champions Yokohama 2026 semifinalist Shinozuka.
“I think I made a great game. I played from the qualifying. So, I was quite exhausted also after very intense matches in the qualifying, but I just tried to give my best, and hopefully it was my day today,” said Movileanu.
Movileanu hit six winners in a row on his way to taking the opening game, then came back from 1-5 down in the second to double his advantage. Victory was sealed when the World No.85 hit five on the bounce to lead 5-3, then another six without reply to end the match in just 20 minutes.
“From the beginning of the match, I was focused only on my game, on my tactics. I mean, before the match, I was also thinking that maybe I have a chance to win, but it was not the main thing to focus on today. So, I guess it was just a bonus for playing good. And yeah, I just felt pressure, of course, like before every match, every tournament and I think I managed quite well,” said Movileanu.
Staying in the men’s singles event, Omar Assar was unable to continue the WTT Grand Smash form that saw him make the quarterfinals of Europe Smash – Sweden 2026, becoming the first Egyptian to ever make it that far, when he lost 7-11, 10-12, 12-10, 12-10, 11-2 to Jang Woojin.
Assar hit five winners in a row to save three game points in the second and was leading 2-7 in the third and should have seen the match out. But Woojin came roaring back and saved two game points to give himself one more chance.
The Korean ace didn’t let it go to waste, taking game four after letting one more game point slip to force a decider. Then, out of nowhere but at the most pivotal moment, the most dominant performance of the match went the World No.11’s way, going 8-0 up before sealing the win.
He Zhuojia one of the four Chinese players claim upset wins
Wildcard He Zhuojia was one of four Chinese players to pull off huge opening-day upsets as the first round of action got underway beating No.15 seed Ying Han 16-14, 11-6, 11-4.
Zhuojia is a former World No.13, hitting that career-high mark back in 2019. In 2025 and the beginning of 2026, she was consistently hovering around the Top 30 mark, but after making the final of WTT Contender Muscat 2026 in January, she has only appeared at three WTT Series events and exited in the Round of 32 each time.
Her opponent, on the other hand, headed to China Smash 2026 after a run to the quarterfinals of WTT Champions Macao 2026 and has been a Top 20 player for all but two weeks of the year.
“I’m satisfied with my performance in this match, since Ying Han is a very strong opponent. I won this match by fighting for every single point. It was a close game. Ying is a chopper who can really drag you into long rallies, I tried not to trail her by a large margin,” said Zhuojia.
But harnessing the support of a packed Smash Arena, He looked back to her best as she blew Han away, confirming the fourth Round of 64 exit of her career.
Zhuojia came dangerously close to conceding the first game, blowing a 7-4 lead and then being forced to save four Game Points, and dropping one of her own, before eventually going up 1-0.
Based on how game one played out, it looked set to be a tight affair, but out of nowhere, the World No.73 Zhuojia was unplayable, breezing through the second and then stunning the World No.16 by winning the match with 10 consecutive points.
Also in the women’s singles event, another German player suffered an early defeat, with qualifier Wang Xiaotong beating Nina Mittelham 11-7, 6-11, 11-6, 11-5.
Xiaotong has played two WTT Grand Smash events in the past, making it to the Round of 16 in Beijing on both occasions. She now has a chance to do it again, as she will face compatriot Zhuojia next.
There was another win for a Chinese qualifier, too, with Fan Shuhan taking down India’s Sreeja Akula 11-5, 11-4, 11-8 in her main draw debut.
For China’s men, there were also positive results, with their highest-ranked player, Wen Ruibo, beating qualifier Iulian Chirita 11-4, 11-6, 5-11, 11-8 and World No.65 Huang Youzheng recovering from going 2-1 down to beat World No.35 Lim Jonghoon 11-5, 6-11, 7-11, 11-5, 16-14.
Yidi survives Polcanova test
Wang Yidi survived an epic battle with Sofia Polcanova inside a packed Infinity ∞ Arena to maintain her 100% record over the Austrian, winning 11-6, 10-12, 11-3, 15-13, 11-5.
Yidi, a three-time WTT Champions winner is in Beijing looking for her first WTT Grand Smash title after finishing runner-up twice. The 29-year-old was handed a tough opening match against the former World No.10 and one of Europe’s greatest players.
Despite being currently ranked World No.43, Polcanova arrived in Shougang Park determined to give Yidi a hard time and recovered from losing the first game to drag herself back from 10-8 down in the second to tie up the match. The 32-year-old let out a thunderous roar when she won Game Two, and it reverberated through the arena because Polcanova had stunned the home crowd into silence.
Polcanova, a two-time WTT Grand Smash quarterfinalist, continued to pick herself up after Yidi delivered blows that would take the fight out of most players, coming back from a devastating 11-3 loss in game three to save three match points in the fourth and force a decider.
But Yidi, who has only exited a WTT Grand Smash at the first hurdle once before, and hasn’t lost to Polcanova in all four of their previous WTT meetings, was able to survive and claimed a hard-fought win to move on to the Round of 32.
The men’s singles No.1 seed Felix Lebrun was in action after that, and he too was made to work for his 6-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-9 victory over Maharu Yoshimura.
Lebrun, who is looking to go back-to-back in men’s singles at a WTT Grand Smash, conceded seven points in a row at the end of game one, but this match’s pivotal moment came halfway through the second.
Up 4-2, Lebrun burned his Time Out when Maharu took four from a possible five to take the lead. That Time Out didn’t instantly work out for the Frenchman, as he slipped even further behind, now trailing 5-7. But the Europe Smash – Sweden 2026 champion was never going to go down easy, and started to hype himself up, cheering every single point as he came back from 7-9 down to level the match.
The 20-year-old put in his best performance of the match in the third, but Maharu remained in this tie right up until the end, saving three match points before Lebrun killed any hope of suffering an opening-round upset.
Calderano breezes, Lind falls
Hugo Calderano breezed through his opening match with a straight-games 11-9, 11-9, 11-8 win over Dimitrij Ovtcharov, a player renowned for causing huge upsets.
This match saw two table tennis titans go head-to-head, with the former World No.1, Ovtcharov, taking on the “Thrill from Brazil”, and stars from other sports were in town to watch it unfold, with Beijing Ducks centre Fan Ziming sitting in the front row.
Ovtcharov made headlines at Europe Smash – Sweden 2026 when he dumped out the defending champion Truls Moregard in the first round, and earlier this year did the same to Calderano at WTT Champions Doha 2026.
But Calderano was determined not to let that happen again, and the 11-time WTT Series champion came back from 5-7 down in the first. The Brazilian showed great mental strength throughout this match, fighting off a flying Ovtcharov who hit four in a row to draw level at 9-9 in the second, and scoring six from a possible seven points at the end of Game Three to seal the win in just 26 minutes.
Over in Smash Arena, Patrick Franziska, the first European to make a WTT Grand Smash final back in 2024, maintained his 100% record against Anders Lind, winning 11-3, 7-11, 14-12, 11-3.
Victory over the Lind could be a good omen for Franziska, as his historic run to the final of Saudi Smash 2024 started with a victory over the Dane.
This match could have easily gone the other way, though, had Lind converted one of his two Game Points in the second, a game where he was also leading 1-6 and 4-9.
While Caldrano was playing, his Mixed Doubles partner Bruna Takahashi had a frustrating night, losing to Wildcard Manika Batra 8-11, 11-8, 11-9, 5-11, 12-10.
This match was pure entertainment right until the very end, with Batra leading 7-4 in the final game before Takahashi put her foot on the gas, setting up two Match Points, which were saved by the Indian legend, who will go on to face No.1 seed Wang Manyu.
