Day 2 of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London saw the race for Stage 2 qualification intensify, as teams battled to secure their place in the knockout rounds at the iconic Copper Box Arena. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With qualification on the line, the day delivered its share of gripping contests and memorable moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Men’s Team<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In Group 15, African giants Nigeria denied Saudi Arabia a famous upset, winning in a thrilling 3-2 contest to keep their qualification hopes alive. They were led by talisman Quadri Aruna, who delivered when it mattered most, winning two fixtures, including the decider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aruna set the tone with a controlled 3-1 victory over Ali Alkhadrawi, but Saudi Arabia responded immediately through Abdulaziz Bu Shulaybi, who used all his experience to overcome Nigerian teenage sensation Matthew Kuti. Olajide Omatayo then restored Nigeria\u2019s advantage with a composed win in the third fixture, putting them within touching distance of victory. However, the tie took another twist as Kuti, despite a spirited performance, went down 2-3 to Alkhadrawi, forcing a decider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the World No. 48 Aruna up against World No. 236 Bu Shulaybi, Nigeria looked set to close the tie comfortably. Instead, a shellshocked Nigerian bench looked on as Bu Shulaybi pushed the contest to a fifth game, threatening a major upset. Aruna, however, held his nerve when it mattered most, winning 11-6 in the decider to sealing a hard-fought 3-2 win, taking Nigeria over the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In another gripping contest, India battled back from 1-2 down to beat Slovakia 3-2, and climbed to the top of the standings of Group 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lubomir Pistej gave Slovakia the early edge, drawing on his experience to outmanoeuvre Manush Shah in a five-game battle. India responded through Manav Thakkar, their highest-ranked player, who brought composure and control to level the tie with a straight-games win over southpaw Jakub Zelinska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slovakia, however, regained the upper hand through chopper Wang Yang, who delivered a clinical defensive display to overcome Harmeet Desai. Mixing sharp changes of pace with precise counter-attacking, Yang kept Desai from finding any rhythm as Slovakia moved toward victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With their backs against the wall, India responded strongly with 2 consecutive straight game wins. Thakkar stepped up once again, holding his nerve to get past Pistej to level the tie, before Shah closed out the comeback with a confident win over Zelinska in the decider to complete India\u2019s win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s Team<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Veteran Mo Zhang\u2019s heroics proved in vain, as Sweden edged past Canada 3-2 to move to the top of the Group 7 standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christina Kallberg gave Sweden a strong start, dispatching Katherine Morin in straight games. But Canada roared back through Zhang, who showed her class in a hard-fought five-game win over chopper Linda Bergstrom to level the tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Filippa Bergrand then restored Sweden\u2019s advantage with a composed 3-1 victory over Sunny Zhang, putting the pressure back on Canada. Mo Zhang, however, rose to the occasion once again, producing an epic performance to defeat Kallberg 3-1. Such was her dominance in this fixture that she even won the second game 11-0 against a high-quality opponent, bringing Canada level in style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Linda Bergstrom returned to the table and delivered under pressure, snuffing out any hopes of a Canadian comeback as she brushed aside Katherine Morin in straight games to seal a hard-fought win for Sweden and deny Zhang a fairytale ending to her heroics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Serbia pulled off one of the upsets of the day, prevailing over Thailand 3-2 in a gripping contest that saw four of the five fixtures go the distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sabina Surjan set the tone with a hard-fought win over Orawan Paranang, recovering after letting a 2-0 lead slip to hold her nerve in the decider. Thailand responded immediately, as Suthasini Sawettabut beat Izabela Lupulesku in another five-game battle to level the tie. The result was significant, marking Sawettabut\u2019s first ever win over Lupulesku after two defeats in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Serbia regained the advantage through Aneta Maksuti, who came through yet another tight five-game match against Wanwisa Aueawiriyayothin to put her side 2-1 ahead. But Paranang struck back in style, producing a dominant straight-games win over Lupulesku to force a decider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With everything on the line, Surjan returned to the table and delivered once again, overcoming Sawettabut in five games to seal a memorable victory and send Serbia to the top of the Group 8 standings, placing them in prime position for qualification to Stage 2 of the competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Day 2 of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London saw the race for Stage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-12436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-table-tennis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ARUNA-Quadri.jpg",1536,1024,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ARUNA-Quadri-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ARUNA-Quadri-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ARUNA-Quadri-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ARUNA-Quadri-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ARUNA-Quadri.jpg",1536,1024,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ARUNA-Quadri.jpg",1536,1024,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ARUNA-Quadri-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ARUNA-Quadri-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ARUNA-Quadri.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12438,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12436\/revisions\/12438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}