Vladimir Sidorenko (Photo WTT)
Vladimir Sidorenko has enacted revenge on Sora Matsushima, beating the World No.1 in the round of 16 at WTT Champions Montpellier 12-10, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6.
Nearly four months ago at United States Smash, Sidorenko’s fairytale run to the men’s singles final, where he beat Benedikt Duda, Tomokazu Harimoto and Truls Moregard, came to an end when Matsushima won his first WTT Grand Smash title.
After US Smash, Sidorenko went on a losing streak, crashing out of his next three WTT Series events at the first hurdle before beating Darko Jorgic 3-1 in the round of 32 in Montpellier. For Matsushima, his path was entirely different, winning China Smash 2026 and becoming Japan’s first World No.1 since 1980.
Signs Matsushima would be in for a tough night were evident from the off, as the World No.19 went up 3-0 and, even after going down 3-5, kept chipping away and stole the opener.
Even though Matsushima got a game back, Sidorenko was playing with great intelligence, and in the third, he came back from 1-4 down by scoring two points immediately off Matsushima’s serve by quickly shifting to the side and unleashing the forehand, limiting rallies to a mere two shots.
Even when they were trading blows in big attacking rallies, Sidorenko kept moving the target and placing the ball in different positions on the table to score past Matsushima and surged to a 2-1 lead, converting Game Point with another battering ram of a forehand on the Japanese star’s serve.
Things got very dangerous for Matsushima in the fourth, as he quickly went down 3-0, forcing him to take a Time Out. That didn’t help at all, and he was soon down 7-1, 8-2, then 9-3.
But you can never count the World No.1 out, who just a few weeks ago came from behind to beat Lin Yun-Ju in the China Smash 2026 final, and he thrives under this sort of pressure. Trailing 9-5, Matsushima was still playing his heart out, hitting a round-the-net shot that made Sidorenko use his Time Out.
That was exactly what the Russian needed, and he returned to the table and immediately got the two points that eliminated the No.1 seed in Montpellier.
Jang Woojin has beaten Lin Yun-Ju in the Round of 16 at WTT Champions Montpellier for the second year in a row, saving three match points to eliminate the No.5 seed 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 12-10.
Facing off for the fourth time on the WTT Series, Chinese Taipei’s Lin had the better record going into this one, winning three, including a straight-games win in the final of WTT Champions Doha. However, one year ago, at this exact stage of WTT Champions Montpellier, the Korean player fought back from losing the first game 11-2 and trailing 2-1 to steal the win.
This match, however, could not have been closer, with every single game decided by just two, and a total of 100 points across all five games.
The tale of this match was Woojin’s calmness under pressure: in Game Three, the World No.10 saw Lin save four game points, but managed to get over the line.
In the decider, Woojin was leading 5-2, but the World No.6 stormed towards the finish line to set up three Match Points, but in a dramatic twist, Woojin saved them all to progress to the quarterfinals.
Earlier in the day, Truls Moregard extended his unbeaten run against Shunsuke Togami to six matches winning 7-11, 11-9, 14-12, 11-5.
Togami made a fantastic start in this one, going up 0-4 and not looking back to take the opener. Moregard, however, started to assert himself in the second, building a four-point lead of his own at 9-5, but Togami kept fighting and clawed it back to 10-9.
When the Europe Smash – Sweden 2025 winner finally got over the line in the second by forcing his opponent to hit the net, he let out a thunderous roar to hype himself up and urge the crowd to get behind him.
But portions of the crowd were here for Togami, chanting his name between points, and he was loving it, demonstrating blistering speed to keep Moregard guessing and go up 4-1. Moregard, the defending champion here in Montpellier, has a 100% record against Togami on the professional circuit, winning all five of their previous matches, and he leaned on that experience to go up 6-5.
Togami, who did beat Moregard 10 years ago as a junior, dusted himself and decided it was his turn to hit a flurry of points, setting up three game points, but to his despair, the Swede saved all three, then went 2-1 up on his third bite of the game point cherry.
The crowd inside Sud de France ARENA were loving this one, and there were huge swathes of fans chanting Togami’s name, and another singing Moregard’s. Togami would need to harness that energy to pull off a spectacular comeback against the WTT Champions Macao 2026 winner, but it wasn’t to be, as Moregard put in his most dominant performance of the match to take the win.
Meanwhile, Hugo Calderano, got his revenge on Hiroto Shinozuka, winning their encounter 11-7, 12-10, 11-5.
Shinozuka beat the ‘Thrill from Brazil’ in the Round of 16 at United States Smash 2026, and his dreams of a repeat looked like they could come to fruition, as the Japanese went up 1-6 in the opener. But Calderano found his groove, and was able to overturn that deficit and then squeeze through a tight Game Two.
The 11-time WTT title winner Calderano wasted no time in closing out this match, putting in his most dominant performance of the match to seal the win and move on to face Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the Round of 16.
In the women’ singles competition, Miwa Harimoto is off and running at WTT Champions Montpellier, brushing aside Bruna Takahashi in straight games 11-7, 11-8, 11-4.
Harimoto is in Montpellier looking to do the unprecedented and win four WTT Champions events on the spin. Standing in her way, however, was Brazil’s No. 1, a player among the few to beat the teenager recently, taking her all the way to five games at Europe Smash – Sweden 2025, their only other WTT Meeting.
A ferocious start lit up the opener, and after a couple of fast-paced rallies, countering backhands and serves loaded with spin, it was Harimoto who started to edge in front, converting her first of three game points.
Momentum was firmly on the side of Japan’s No.1 in Game Two, as she stormed to a 6-0 lead, but Takahashi, who has not won a WTT Series match since July, was not going to go down without a fight, and brought the score back to 7-6, forcing Harimoto to use her Time Out.
Harimoto listened intently as her coach and father, Yu Harimoto, spent the whole minute laying out the plan for the rest of the game. Once back at the table, the three-time WTT Champions winner went straight back to business, setting up four Game Points and sealing Game Two on the second.
It was a must-win game for Takahashi now, and she did not get the start she was looking for, as the dominant Harimoto stayed close to the table, firing off rockets and pushing deep to unravel the World No.32 and get this game wrapped up in 24 minutes.
