Fans inside Infinity \u221e Arena were treated to a five-game epic featuring old foes Sora Matsushima and Dang Qiu at WTT Champions Montpellier table tennis, with the World No.1 eventually coming out on top 11-8, 11-8, 3-11, 10-12, 11-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This match was a repeat of the WTT Champions Frankfurt 2025 final, where Matsushima broke Qiu\u2019s heart by denying him the title in front of home fans, and the fifth time they had met on the WTT Series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matsushima, who has never lost to Qiu, has a stunning WTT Champions record, reaching at least the quarterfinals at his last six events, and got off to a perfect start at Sud de France ARENA, not falling behind once in the opening two games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Qiu was never going to go down without a fight, and started the third by ripping five winners. The German, who has never won a WTT Champions event, continued to dominate, going up 0-4 and 5-9 in the second. Matsushima managed to save two game points, but it was the third time lucky for Dang, who forced the decider.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matsushima, competing at a WTT Champions event for the first time as World No. 1, decided enough was enough and destroyed Dang in the fifth, delivering the match’s most dominant performance to secure the win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opening match of the second session on day one saw hometown hero Felix Lebrun take down Anders Lind 11-8, 11-3, 11-3 in just 15 minutes. Lebrun was the winner of the first WTT Champions Montpellier in 2024, but crashed out in the second round at the hands of Simon Gauzy last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, the 20-year-old has won some of the biggest prizes on the WTT Series, including men\u2019s singles titles at WTT Champions Chongqing 2026 and Europe Smash – Sweden 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, An Jaehyun produced a stunning comeback against Omar Assar, overturning a two-game deficit to eliminate Egypt\u2019s No.1, whose losing streak at this level now stretches to 16 matches, winning 8-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 13-11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Facing each other for only the second time, and the first time on the WTT Series, Assar looked set to claim only his second WTT Champions win in 20 attempts when he came back from 5-2 down and hit six winners in a row to take the opener, and then cruised through game two, where he led from the off.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Jaehyun , whose best performance at this level was a run to the quarterfinals at WTT Champions Yokohama 2025, edged a tight game three and built a 4-0 lead in the fourth to force a decider.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had a strong start, but things got a little difficult in the middle of the match, and I found myself trailing 0-2. I felt that it would be disappointing to come this far and lose this match. There are a lot of people back home in Korea supporting me, so that made me keep fighting, not give up until the end, and do my best for the victory,” said Jaehyun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assar, whose only WTT Champions win was a 3-1 victory over Anton Kallberg at WTT Champions Frankfurt 2023, saved two match points but tragically missed his chance to win while leading 10-11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fans were treated to another five-game thriller in the men\u2019s singles draw, as Lin Yun-Ju held off a brilliant performance from Joao Geraldo, who is enjoying a purple patch in the latter stages of his career, winning 8-11, 11-4, 5-11, 11-4, 11-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Competing at only the third WTT Champions event of his career, Geraldo rose to a career-high World No.31 earlier this year, following a series of impressive runs, including the semifinals at WTT Contender Tunis, a runner-up finish at WTT Feeder Lagos and the quarterfinals at WTT Contender Lagos.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His opening match in Montpellier couldn\u2019t have been much more difficult, as he faced a man who came to France off the back of making the final at China Smash. However, despite winning WTT Champions Doha at the beginning of the season, Yun-Ju exited his last two events at this level in the first round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smelling blood, the 31-year-old Geraldo went 6-2 up before taking the opener, but Yun-Ju levelled after hitting seven without reply in the second. Both players continued to take it in turns to dominate, and it was Geraldo\u2019s turn to hit seven in a row and reestablish the lead. Yun-Ju forced the decider by hitting nine from a possible 10, and then sealed the victory with 13 winners from 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first match of the day in Sud de France ARENA saw two former Top 10 players facing off, as Shin Yubin demolished Cheng I-Ching 11-2, 13-11, 11-5 in the women’s singles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A confident start from Yubin set the tone for this match, with the 22-year-old setting up nine Game Points before drawing first blood. Yubin, who lost to I-Ching in all three of their previous WTT Series matches, then built a 7-3 lead in the second, and although her Chinese Taipei counterpart fought back, she moved to within one game of the win.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Korean star continued to dominate in the third, taking a 5-0 and 10-3 lead before beating I-Ching for the first time in seven years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things weren\u2019t quite so easy for Yubin\u2019s long-serving mixed doubles partner Lim Jonghoon, as he sank to a straight-games defeat to No.8 seed Lin Shidong 11-7, 11-8, 11-2.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fans inside Infinity \u221e Arena were treated to a five-game epic featuring old foes Sora Matsushima and Dang<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-17138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-table-tennis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t