The intensity continued to build on Day 3 of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London, with a series of upsets and spirited performances as teams pushed hard in the race for Stage 2 qualification. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Singapore moved to the top of Group 14, edging USA 3-2 after withstanding a strong challenge led by American No. 1 Kanak Jha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jha proved why he was the highest ranked player in the world across both teams, giving USA just the start they needed by steamrolling past Josh Chua in the opening fixture. He effectively neutralized Chua\u2019s \u2018long-pimple\u2019 rubber on the backhand, as he lost just 12 points enroute his 3-0 win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Singapore No. 1 Izaac Quek immediately returned the favor, levelling up the tie at 1-1 by thrashing fellow 19-year-old Nandan Naresh in a heavily mismatched clash, with Quek\u2019s attacking prowess proving overwhelming for Naresh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Koen Pang further pressed home Singapore\u2019s advantage, winning in straight games against veteran Jishan Liang in yet another lopsided encounter to give the Singaporeans a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Jha refused to let the USA surrender meekly, using all his experience to take out Izaac Quek 3-1 and force a decider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the tie on the line, Josh Chua returned to the table and delivered under pressure, winning 3-0 against the higher ranked Nandan Naresh. Using his \u2018twiddling\u2019 of the \u2018long-pimple\u2019 rubber and step-around forehand to great effect, he bamboozled a helpless Naresh in straight games to seal the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hong Kong, China produced a dominant display to sweep past Nigeria 3-0, all but securing their place in Stage 2 from Group 15. In a tie expected to be closely contested, they conceded just one game across three matches, underlying their current form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tone for the win was set early, with southpaw Baldwin Chan unleashing a stunning barrage of attacking strokes to shock the legendary Quadri Aruna 3-1. The manner of the win visibly dented Nigeria\u2019s momentum, with Chan dictating play right from the outset. The left-hander used his serves and angles effectively, repeatedly targeting Aruna\u2019s backhand to stay on the front foot and seal a solid win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From there onwards, it all went downhill for Nigeria. Wong Chun Ting and Lam Siu Hang placed their foot firmly on the accelerator against a demoralised Nigerian side, and followed up with straight-games victories over Olajide Omotayo and Taiwo Mati respectively, facing little resistance as they moved to the top of Group 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Italy shock Croatia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a big upset, Italy put up an exhibition of attacking table tennis, shocking higher ranked Croatia 3-0 to become firm favorites to qualify from Group 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gaia Monfardini set the tone, maintaining her unbeaten record against Ivana Malobabic with a composed straight-games win to give Italy the lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, to Croatia\u2019s disbelief, Giorgia Piccolin stunned Hana Arapovic, beating her for the first time in their third career meeting to give Italy a 2-0 lead, inching them closer to victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final match delivered the drama. Nicole Arlia raced into a 2-0 lead against the higher ranked Lea Rakovac, only for the Croatian to mount a comeback, taking the next two games and moving 10-7 ahead in the decider. With momentum slipping, Arlia responded under pressure, reeling off five straight points to seal a 12-10 win and complete a memorable victory for Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kazakhstan kept their qualification hopes alive in Group 5 with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Czechia in a marathon contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Karin Grofova gave Czechia the perfect start, cruising past Sarvinoz Mirkadirova in straight games. But Kazakhstan responded strongly, as Zauresh Akasheva and Zhanerke Koshkumbayeva delivered back-to-back wins to turn the tie around and give Kazakhstan a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grofova, however, refused to back down, continuing her standout performance with a 3-1 win over Akasheva to force a decider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With everything on the line, Sarvinoz Mirkadirova returned to the table, determined to make amends for her loss in the opening fixture. She raced into a 2-0 lead against Hanka Kodet, only to see the match slip into a fifth game as Kodet fought back. In a tense and fluctuating decider, Mirkadirova held her nerve at the crucial moments, edging it 14-12 to seal a vital win and keep Kazakhstan firmly in the hunt for a place in Stage 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The intensity continued to build on Day 3 of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12487,"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-12486","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\/05\/QUEK-Izaac-.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/QUEK-Izaac--150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/QUEK-Izaac--300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/QUEK-Izaac--768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/QUEK-Izaac--1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/QUEK-Izaac--1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/QUEK-Izaac--2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/QUEK-Izaac--825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/QUEK-Izaac--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\/05\/QUEK-Izaac-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12486","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=12486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12489,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12486\/revisions\/12489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}