Wang Chuqin (Photo WTT)
Revenge was served throughout the opening matches of WTT Champions Frankfurt table tennis tournement, with Wang Chuqin defeating Anders Lind, Tomokazu Harimoto beating Vladimir Sidorenko in the men’s singles, and Joo Cheonhui knocking Adriana Diaz out of the women’s singles event.
The second Men’s Singles match of the day was a blockbuster event, with Chuqin returning to the WTT Series to face an old foe in Lind and carving out a 11-7, 14-12, 11-9 win.
Lind has become a tough opponent for the former World No.1 over the years, most recently beating him at United States Smash 2026, Chuqin’s last outing on the WTT Series. Before that, the Dane beat Chuqin 3-1 in his own backyard at China Smash 2024.
Signs that history could be repeating itself came when Lind stormed to a 1-5 lead in the opener, but glimpses of what the four-time WTT Champions winner Chuqin could do came when he set up blistering forehand shots after the service return to stun his counterpart.
Chuqin was fired up, and a player who is usually quiet and calm in the opening game let out a huge cheer when he took the lead at 8-7, and another when he sealed the opening game. Both players would have known just how important game one was, with Lind’s victories over Wang only coming when he took the opener.
The 15-time WTT title winner Chuqin’s dominance continued into Game Two, and he looked set to take the second with two game points. Lind, however, managed to save them both but dropped his only shot at taking Game Two before Wang doubled his advantage.
The writing looked to be on the wall when Chuqin stormed to a 6-1 lead, but a last throw of the dice from Lind, who looked to be dealing with a hip injury, saw him reduce the deficit to just one point, forcing the World No.4 to call a time out.
That time out did not give Wang what he needed to hit a clean run of points to end the game, but at 9-9 he was able to serve out the match. Once he confirmed the final point, his first reaction was to ask the Dane if he was okay, clearly referencing the pain Lind was pushing through in the match.
The next men’s singles match saw Harimoto take on Sidorenko. The Russian beat Harimoto 3-0 in the Round of 16 at US Smash, and last week he also defeated World No.1 Sora Matsushima in Montpellier, but this time, the victory belonged to the Japanese star in 11-6, 11-8, 11-7.
Harimoto came to the table with a clear game plan, finding great success with consistent long pushes to set up four Game Points, before ending the opener with a rally filled with smashing forehands that forced Sidorenko way back from the table.
Harimoto was in complete control from then on, never falling behind as he won in just 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, home favourite Dang Qiu battled back from going 2-1 down to win 3-11, 14-12, 9-11, 11-2, 11-7 in his match against Elias Ranefur, as the German looks to go one better than his run to the final 12 months ago.
This was the first meeting between these two, and one of the main reasons it has come about is because of Ranefur’s exceptional rise through the ITTF World Rankings in recent months.
The Swede made an astonishing run to the quarterfinals of Europe Smash – Sweden 2026 and then won WTT Contender Panagyurishte 2026, rising to a career-high World No.27, after starting the year at 114.
Ranefur made a blistering start, beating Qiu by eight points in the opener. There were two crucial points in this match, the first being Qiu dropping three Game Points before saving one of Ranefur’s to avoid going two games down.
Things were very tight in the third, but a Ranefur Time Out at 7-8 gave him just what he needed to regain the lead. Qiu threw everything at his opponent in the fourth, going up 7-0 and hitting five in a row to lead 5-2 in the final game, building a comfortable lead he could ride home.
After that, defending champion Matsushima swept aside Joao Geraldo in just 16 minutes, winning 11-6, 11-8, 11-7.
Meeting for the second time in less than a week, Cheonhui secured a dominant win over Diaz in the women’s singles in 11-8, 11-8, 2-11, 11-3.
In the following matches, Bernadette Szocs handed rising star Peng Yu-Han a straight-games loss to win 11-9, 11-8, 11-8.
Yu-Han has enjoyed a breakthrough season, most notably making the quarterfinals of Europe Smash – Sweden after navigating the qualifying rounds, and she beat Szocs 3-0 at the WTT Star Contender Chennai.
