Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin (Photo WTT)
The first champions of China Smash table tennis championships have been crowned, with Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin saving eight championship points against Lin Yun-Ju and Cheng I-Ching in an epic 12-14, 11-9, 16-18, 13-11, 11-8 mixed doubles final victory.
This title match saw two of the circuit’s strongest mixed doubles pairs face off. Lim and Shin won the WTT Finals Hong Kong 2025 title in December, and earlier this year claimed their first WTT Grand Smash crown, going all the way at United States Smash 2026.
Standing opposite the Korea Republic players were Lin and Cheng, who were hunting their first WTT Grand Smash title and have won five trophies together as a pair on the WTT Series, most recently taking the mixed doubles honours at WTT Star Contender London 2025.
With two highly decorated mixed doubles going at it, this match promised to be a thriller, and it lived up to the hype from the very first game.
The No.7 seeds Cheng and Lin recovered from an early battering at the hands of their opponents, saving six Game Points after trailing 10-5 to steal the opening match.
Lim and Shin, who have never beaten the Chinese Taipei side on the WTT Series after losing the first game, now had a mountain to climb, but gave themselves a fighting chance, scoring two points on their opponent’s serve at the end of the second to level the match.
The fans inside Infinity ∞ Arena were being treated to pure drama as both of these teams were desperate to secure the first title of China Smash 2026, with a stunning ten game points in the third, nine of which went to Lin and Cheng, who moved to within one game of their WTT Grand Smash title.
But that was nothing compared to what was about to unfold, with Lim and Shin saving a monumental eight championship points in game four to force a decider. That undoubtedly stunned Lin and Cheng, who conceded another eight on the bounce in game five, and Lim and Shin secured their second WTT Grand Smash Mixed Doubles title.
The first matches of the day saw the Men’s Doubles and Women’s Doubles finalists confirmed.
In the women’s doubles No.1 seeds Miwa Harimoto and Hina Hayata closing in on their third WTT Grand Smash title of the season, beating Wang Yidi and Jiang Yiyi 11-9, 11-6, 7-11, 11-7. While that match was going on, Wang Manyu and Kuai Man beat Chen Yi and Li Yihui 11-4, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8.
In the men’s doubles semifinal, Alexis Lebrun and Felix Lebrun got their revenge on United States Smash champions Wen Ruibo and Yuan Licen, who eliminated the French brothers at that event.
The other semifinal saw No.4 seeds Lim Jonghoon and Oh Junsung beat the No.2 seeds from India, Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah 11-8, 11-6, 11-3.
Hitomi Sato has become the first chopper to reach a WTT Grand Smash women’s singles semifinal, beating fellow defensive star Zhu Sibing 11-9, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-8.
World No.134 Zhu battled through three qualifying matches without dropping a game and beat No.4 seed Kuai Man in the Round of 16, the biggest win of her career, to make it to a WTT Grand Smash quarterfinal for the first time.
Sato, on the other hand, has reached the final at her last three WTT Series events, including claiming the Women’s Singles title at WTT Contender Panagyurishte 2026, but is appearing at only her third WTT Grand Smash.
Unsurprisingly, with two choppers facing off against each other, the expedite rule was enforced after 12 points in the first game, meaning the player who serves has thirteen strokes to win the point, or the receiver wins it.
Sato has a 76% win rate against defensive players compared to Zhu’s 20%, and the Japanese World No.13 has faced almost nine times as many as her Chinese counterpart. With the scores tied up at 1-1, it looked like we might be watching these two go at it all night, but Sato ensured it wouldn’t go to seven games, although the match still rumbled on for 59 minutes.
Zhou Qihao kept China’s dreams of winning China Smash 2026 alive on Friday night, as the No.14 seed beat Jang Woojin 12-10, 8-11, 4-11, 11-9, 14-12, 11-6 to progress to the men’s singles semifinals.
Competing in his maiden WTT Grand Smash quarterfinal, Zhou came back from 2-8 down and saved two Game Points to snatch the opener.
But Jang, who at Saudi Smash 2024 became the first Korea Republic player to make a WTT Grand Smash semifinal, came fighting back, building an unassailable lead and converting his second of two Game Points. The No.9 seed then put in the most dominant performance of the match in the third to go 2-1 up.
Heading into the fourth, it was now Zhou’s turn to dominate, racing to a 4-0 lead and then levelling the match.
The tension really ramped up inside Infinity ∞ Arena when the WTT Star Contender Doha 2026 champion Zhou saved three Game Points to again rob Jang and take the lead in the match. Momentum was now on the 29-year-old’s side, and a 6-2 lead all but confirmed his first WTT Grand Smash semifinal.
Wang Manyu took another step towards defending her women’s singles title in the opening match of session two, taking down Shin Yubin in straight games 11-8, 11-7, 11-3, 11-9.
Wang has a 100% record against Shin over seven international matches, two of which have come at WTT Grand Smash events, and the World No.2 made light work of Korea Republic’s top player.
Shin, whose WTT Grand Smash personal best is a run to the semifinal of this event last year, remained close in Game One, but didn’t offer much of a threat to the defending champion.
From there, Wang, who has three Women’s Singles titles at this level, barely got out of second gear as she cruised the rest of the match, at one point hitting an 11-point run to take Game Three.
Meanwhile, No.7 seed Chen Xingtong denied Honoka Hashimoto in the women’s singles semifinal, coming back from two games to secure 5-11, 8-11, 11-2, 12-10, 11-3, 11-6 win.
Chen and Hashimoto had never met on the WTT Series before today, but had played each other twice on the international circuit, with Hashimoto winning both and their last encounter coming all the way back in 2020.
No.14 seed Hashimoto was appearing at only her third WTT Grand Smash. Her first was a Round of 64 exit at Singapore Smash 2022, and the 28-year-old then had four years away, but returned with a run to the quarterfinals at United Smash 2026.
Chen, on the other hand, has appeared at 12 WTT Grand Smashes since 2022, reaching the semifinals four times, and she leaned on that experience to get the win today.
After losing the opener, Chen called a Time Out when trailing 8-9 in the second. Even though she dropped that game, Chen returned to the table and put in the most dominant performance of the match to reduce the deficit to one.
WTT Champions Yokohama 2025 winner Chen was in full control as she went 4-0 up in the fourth, but Hashimoto threatened to go 3-1 up when she was leading 7-9 and then had Game Point, but the 29-year-old saved it to get back on level terms.
From there, it was one-way traffic, as Chen hit 14 in a row to claim the fifth and go 4-0 up in Game Six, eventually getting the win after one hour and 20 minutes.
