Anders Lind (Photo WTT)
Anders Lind’s title reign at WTT Contender Lagos 2026 was nearly cut short at the first hurdle, with the defending men’s singles champion requiring a late comeback to deny Iulian Chirita 10-12, 6-11, 11-3, 11-9, 12-10.
The Dane, who expertly cut his way through the playing field at the 2025 event, found himself up against the ropes as World No.80 Chirita hit hard and fast, jabbing away at Lind in the early exchanges to open up a sizeable two-game lead.
While Lind weathered the storm admirably to pull level at 2-2, he appeared to be all out of luck in the business-end of the match as Chirita confidently led all the way to 7-10, setting up three Match Points.
However, there was one final twist to come, and remarkably the chips fell in Lind’s favour. Striking five points on the bounce in the face of pressure, the top seed dug himself out of a hole, unleashing a crunching forehand from the backhand side of the table to bring the match to a stunning close.
Meanwhile, in the opposite half of the draw, No.2 seed Thibault Poret also needed late inspiration to keep his campaign on track, fighting back from 1-2 down to see off Martin Allegro 12-10, 9-11, 4-11, 11-8, 11-8.
Poret, who has twice finished in the runner-up spot at WTT Star Contender level, is one of the big names being well-backed to clinch his title breakthrough in Lagos. Next up he turns his attention to Kim Gaon, who opened his account with a 9-11, 12-10, 11-8, 13-11 victory over Milo De Boer.
The outstanding action from the day’s women’s singles matches came from Saki Shibata’s showdown with Gaia Monfardini.
Two players separated by just 11 positions in the ITTF Table Tennis World Rankings, the contest always felt it was going to go down to the wire. Monfardini appeared to have it in the bag two games in, moving just two points away from the win at 8-9 up in the third.
But Shibata flipped the script, stealing game three by the skin of her teeth, before following up with ruthless showings in the fourth and fifth games to complete the reversal 9-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-5.
