The top 15 clash between Tomokazu Harimoto and Anders Lind kickstarted the second session of the day at WTT Champions Macao and victory went the way of the man from Japan, who cruised through to the quarterfinals in just 17 minutes and then said he’s here for the title. He picked up a 11-3, 11-6, 11-6 win.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harimoto, who beat Lind twice last season, wasted no time at all in asserting himself in this match, storming to a 5-1 lead and bellowing out his trademark celebrations from the off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lind has never beaten his Japanese counterpart and was in trouble when Harimoto took the opener with seven game points. The Dane then started to vent his frustration in the second, talking with his coach between points after sending a couple of shots way wide of the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite taking a time out to continue those discussions more in depth, moments after returning, Lind had an even bigger mountain to climb, slipping behind 9-5. Soon after, the WTT Champions Yokohama 2025 and 2026 winner converted his second of five Game Points for a two-game lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“To a certain extent, I was able to bring what I\u2019ve practised into the match today. I knew that as long as I could do that, I would definitely win. Regardless of how my opponent played, I was happy to execute my game,” said Harimoto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lind, who knows a thing or two about winning here in Macao, beating then-World No.1 Lin Shidong here last year on his way to the semifinals, had to pull something special out of the bag and fast. And, while Lind was playing some great shots in the third game, Harimoto just refused to be broken down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harimoto, gunning for his fourth WTT Champions title and 10th on the Series overall, romped to a 5-1 lead in the third, and Lind looked bewildered as the game, and then match, passed him by. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Of course, I\u2019m aiming to win the title here in Macao. Actually, I\u2019ve aimed for the title at every WTT event I\u2019ve competed in this year. But right now, this is the one where I have the chance to make a difference. I\u2019ll do my best to take the title and give everything I have in the next match,” he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stepping into Infinity \u221e Arena as soon as that match was over was his sister, Miwa Harimoto, who was as ruthless as her brother, putting Anna Hursey 11-2, 11-4, 11-4 down in just 18 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miwa is looking to make history here in the Macao East Asian Games Dome by becoming only the second player to win back-to-back-to-back WTT Champions events, and just like her brother, she applied pressure early on, winning the first game by nine points.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hursey, who lost all four of her WTT matches against Winter, knows from experience how difficult a match against the World No.3 can be, and Miwa was not slowing down, moving her opponent around the table as she continued to race towards 11 points and go two games up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was a pretty hard-fought win for me in Sweden. I lost the first game, and Anna had the Game Points in the fourth one. I managed to win that one. That was a very meaningful match for me. I watched the video several times and carefully honed my tactics for this encounter,” said Miwa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miwa , who beat Hursey at Europe Smash – Sweden 2026, was simply unstoppable and unrelenting in this match, and that was on full show in the final game, as she hit seven from a possible eight winners before taking her first of six match points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dang Qiu and Zhou Qihao played out a thrilling five-game match with China\u2019s World No.24 coming back from 2-1 down to eliminate the No.7 seed 11-9, 10-12, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In game one, Qihao as the dominator, going 4-1 and 8-5 up, but Qiu started to grow into the match, setting up a nervy finish when he levelled at 9-9.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This match was filled with stunning table tennis, with Qihao’s counter backhand right on the line to cut the deficit to 8-9 in the second, a contender for point of the day. That point stunned Dang, who quickly called a Time Out, giving him time to recover, return to the table, and level the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Qiu put in his most convincing performance of the match in the third, hitting Qihao with brutal shots as he cruised through the gears and moved to within touching distance of the Round of 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Qiu leading the fourth game from the outset, all signs were seemingly pointing to the German making it past the first round at this level for the third time in a row. But Qihao had other ideas and, in a dramatic twist, went ahead for the first time at 9-8 before stealing the win at the death.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final moments at the end of the fourth game gave Qihao a huge confidence boost, and he absolutely bossed the two-time WTT Champions finalist in the decider, taking the first of five match points to bring down the World No.11 and move on to face Kanak Jha in the Round of 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The men\u2019s singles title race is beginning to open up with the fall of Dang, who joins Chinese Taipei\u2019s Lin Yun-Ju as the second-seeded player to exit in the first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first match of the day, Benedikt Duda got his revenge on Chinese Taipei\u2019s Kuo Guan-Hong, beating the teenager in straight games 11-5, 11-9, 11-7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the fourth time Duda and Kuo have faced off this year, and the first time the German has managed to beat the 17-year-old, who is one of the hottest prospects in table tennis right now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last match of the night saw No.5 seed Hugo Calderano recover from an early setback against Tomislav Pucar, winning 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pucar, who was looking to make it to a WTT Champions quarterfinal for the first time in his career, would have to do something he has never done before on the WTT Series to achieve it: beat the Thrill from Brazil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Croatian made a perfect start, killing all of the World No.7\u2019s threats in the opener, but Calderano, who made the final here in Macao in 2025, wasn\u2019t fazed by his slow start and eventually got the job done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anton Kallberg put in a comprehensive performance against France\u2019s Flavien Coton, taking down the rising star 11-5, 11-4, 11-7 in just 20 minutes to make his second WTT Champions quarterfinal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bernadette Szocs and Sofia Polcanova faced off for a spot in the women’s quarterfinals and played out what could go down as one of the matches of the week to claim a 11-3, 11-7, 10-12, 8-11, 11-8 victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Szocs was out for revenge in this one, having previously lost a five-game thriller to Austrian Polcanova in the Round of 32 at WTT Champions Frankfurt 2025, and the Romanian made a perfect start as she went 7-1 up before converting her first of seven game points.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That dominance continued into Game Two, where the former WTT Finals Fukuoka 2024 semifinalist started to tally up the points with a healthy 7-3 lead. But Palconavo, who made the quarterfinals of WTT Champions Incheon 2024, leaned on that experience of going far at this level to pull it back to within one point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To halt the comeback, Szocs called a time put that couldn\u2019t have gone any better, as she hit four in a row to move to within one game of her first WTT Champions quarterfinals since that event in Incheon.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Polcanova ensured that there was going to be at least one more chapter in this tale, as she showed amazing resilience to come back from 9-4 down and save three match points to force Szocs to go another round.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This match had suddenly gone from being one-way traffic to being balanced on a knife edge, with the next game proving crucial. And Polcanova, playing against her best friend in table tennis, had momentum on her side going into the decider. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both players, potentially out of respect, had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout the match, but put their friendship on pause in the final game and were cheering every point as they ticked towards the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This match had turned into a real battle, with both players firing at each other, but nothing could split them after 12. While Polcanova pulled off some stunning shots, it was Szocs who started to pull away, and she erupted with emotion when she secured the win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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