Ying Han becomes oldest player to reach semi-finals

Ying Han has recorded one of the greatest wins of her career, knocking out WTT Champions Doha 2026 top seed Wang Manyu over seven gruelling games 11-6, 4-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-4, 8-11, 11-6.

Han went into the tie as the World No. 22, and before today had never progressed past the quarterfinal at a WTT Champions event. Manyu is the current World No.2 and only recently defended her WTT Finals Women’s Singles title. 

“Of course, I am extremely pleased with my performance because I have never beaten her before; the best I ever did was win one game against her. My goal today was to win two games, and when I won the third game, I started to get a little bit of belief. And then I just wanted to give it my all for every point,” said Han.

This match was Han’s third quarterfinal at this level, but the win was not just a giant killing. Edging Manyu over seven games means Han has become the oldest player to reach a WTT Champions semifinal, aged 42 years and 256 days old.

The potential for an upset became evident early, when Han stormed to a 5-1 lead. Manyu closed the gap to 6-5, but Han again fired off a series of winners to take the first game. 

When playing the world’s best, taking the first game is one thing, but the real test comes in the second, after they have had a chance to study your game and adjust. Manyu was utterly ruthless in this game, at one point leading 9-1. 

But again, Han recovered by smashing a series of points past Manyu, taking a five-point lead in Game 3 and then going 8-0 up in the fifth after Wang won the fourth. 

The final game was much of the same: The pair shared the first four points before Han ran away with a lead of 6-2 and 10-4 before taking the game. 

Manyu and Han met here in Doha last year, with Wang completing a 4-1 win over the German defender at ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals Doha.

Han will now move into Sunday’s semifinal, where she will once again have to pull off a historic upset by beating No.6 seed Zhu Yuling if she hopes to move one step closer to the title. 

The last time Han met Yuling was also here in Doha back in 2016. Sunday’s match will be the first WTT clash between the pair. 

Yuling’s charge towards the women’s singles title has taken a massive leap forward, as the former World No.1 downed Wang Yidi 11-5, 11-9, 11-13, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8 to progress to the semifinal.

Yuling, who celebrates her 31st birthday today, has been in fantastic form all week at Lusail Sports Arena, having not gone behind once in her first three matches and having only dropped a total of four games. 

“I cherished every moment throughout the entire match because I don’t get too many opportunities to compete with highly skilled players like Wang Yidi. I’d treat it as an intense training for myself. Today, I performed at my best at every moment and settled into the first game fast,” said Yuling.

The Macao, China player faced her toughest test of the event so far on Saturday when she was put up against No.4 seed Yidi, but Yuling scored a huge confidence-boosting first game win, where she was at one point 9-1 up. 

Yuling, who only made her return to action in September 2024 after four years away from the international scene, then went 5-1 up in the second and was in full control of the tie. While Yidi managed to win a couple of games, she just couldn’t do enough to close the gap on the No.6 seed.

Yuling shocked the world by winning the women’s singles crown at United States Smash 2025. Before that, her last title in the discipline was at WTT Feeder Cagliari 2024.

Chen Xingtong put herself amongst the headlines with a nail-biting 9-11, 11-13, 11-3, 12-10, 11-9, 14-16, 17-15 win over Miwa Harimoto.

A match that went on for a whopping 1 hour and 31 minutes, there were twists and turns throughout as both players brought Infinity ∞ Arena to life.

Twice a runner-up on the WTT Champions stage previously, Miwa Harimoto has been desperate to get her hands on a purple winner’s trophy for a long time, and she couldn’t have asked for a better start to Saturday’s quarterfinal, showing great resolve to edge the opening two games.

But the margins in those two games were as tight as could be, and Chen Xingtong was still very much in the match. A hard-hitting response in the third was exactly what the doctor ordered, and that would lead to a significant momentum shift.

Imposing her authority in games four and five, it was now the Chinese superstar who held the advantage, and she would have three glorious opportunities to end it in the sixth. But Harimoto held on, saving three Match Points to force a decider, which somehow proved even more dramatic.

With a semifinal ticket on the line, the fate of the match would be decided in jaw-dropping fashion. 17-year-old sensation Harimoto thought she had it at 8-10, and would go on to hold two more Match Point opportunities at 10-11 and 14-15. However, in a dramatic twist, all four points were denied as Xingtong showed up when it mattered most, squeezing over the line 17-15 at the last to settle the debate in style.

Over in the men’s singles draw, the winner of Europe Smash – Sweden 2025 and WTT Champions Montpellier 2025, Truls Moregard, saw his week in Doha come to a premature end, dramatically exiting to Jang Woojin in their quarterfinal clash in 11-5, 11-7, 9-11, 11-3, 12-10.

Meanwhile, another European megastar also saw their title hopes crushed as Felix Lebrun fell short against Tomokazu Harimoto 5-11, 11-4, 11-5, 4-11, 11-9, 11-9, with the Japanese star now just two steps away from another WTT Champions title.