{"id":9253,"date":"2026-02-10T07:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=9253"},"modified":"2026-02-10T07:45:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:45:22","slug":"world-champions-leads-24-qualifiers-for-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/world-champions-leads-24-qualifiers-for-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"World Champions leads 24 qualifiers for World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Twenty-four players from around the globe have secured their spots for the ITTF Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s World Cup in Macao later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The qualifiers were confirmed following the various continental championships with reigning world champions Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha of China headlining the the Asian contingent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three-time European champion Darko Jorgic and defending champion Ying Han will lead the European charge. Africa\u2019s Omar Assar and Quadri Aruna spearhead the continent\u2019s quartet, with Algeria celebrating a historic breakthrough as three players secured World Cup berths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Asia \u2013 Men\u2019s Singles:<\/strong> Wang Chuqin (CHN), Chang Yu-An (TPE), Harimoto Tomokazu (JPN), Togami Shunsuke (JPN)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Asia \u2013 Women\u2019s Singles:<\/strong> Sun Yingsha (CHN), Kuai Man (CHN), Wang Manyu (CHN), Harimoto Miwa (JPN)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Europe \u2013 Men\u2019s Singles:<\/strong> Darko Jorgic (SLO), Benedikt Duda (GER), F\u00e9lix Lebrun (FRA), Alexis Lebrun (FRA)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Europe \u2013 Women\u2019s Singles:<\/strong> Jia Nan Yuan (FRA), Bernadette Szocs (ROU), Ying Han (GER), Sabine Winter (GER)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Africa \u2013 Men\u2019s Singles:<\/strong> Omar Assar (EGY), Quadri Aruna (NGR), St\u00e9phane Ouaiche (ALG), Mehdi Bouloussa (ALG)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Africa \u2013 Women\u2019s Singles:<\/strong> Hana Goda (EGY), Dina Meshref (EGY), Mariam Alhodaby (EGY), Tania Morice (ALG)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Wang and Sun Claim Asian Titles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the Wuyuan River Stadium in Haikou, China, reigning World Champion Wang Chuqin successfully defended his Asian Cup title with a 9-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 victory over Japan\u2019s Tomokazu Harimoto. After falling behind 2-1, Chuqin rallied to claim three consecutive games and lift the trophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the women\u2019s final, world number one Sun Yingsha captured her first Asian Cup title, outlasting compatriot Wang Manyu 11-5, 11-6, 7-11, 8-11, 11-7, 6-11, 13-11 in a see-saw encounter. Yingsha held her nerve in the decider to seal victory 13-11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Japan\u2019s Togami Shunsuke defeated Chinese Taipei\u2019s Chang Yu-An to claim third place in the men\u2019s singles, whilst China\u2019s Kuai Man overcame Japan\u2019s Harimoto Miwa for bronze in the women\u2019s event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lebrun and Winter Crowned European Champions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Montreux, France\u2019s Alexis Lebrun successfully defended his Europe Top 16 Cup title with a composed 11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6 victory over Slovenia\u2019s Darko Jorgic in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Germany\u2019s top seed Sabine Winter claimed her first Europe Top 16 Cup title with a dominant 11-4, 11-4, 11-4 victory over Romania\u2019s Bernadette Szocs. Winter becomes the first player to win a European title using anti-topspin rubber since John Hilton captured the European Championships crown in 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis victory means very, very much to me. Winning the Europe Top 16 Cup is the most important international title of my career, and I will definitely celebrate it properly,\u201d said Winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Algeria Celebrates Historic Breakthrough<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Benghazi, Algeria secured three World Cup spots in a landmark achievement for the nation\u2019s table tennis programme. Teenage sensation Tania Morice announced her arrival on the continental stage with a commanding 4-0 quarterfinal victory over Tunisia\u2019s Abir Haj Salah. The reigning African girls\u2019 cadet champion becomes the youngest Algerian player to qualify for the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>St\u00e9phane Ouaiche delivered a dominant run to claim his World Cup berth, whilst Mehdi Bouloussa completed Algeria\u2019s historic trio with a major upset in the men\u2019s semifinals, defeating third seed Youssef Abdelaziz of Egypt 4-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Africa\u2019s established stars also sealed their tickets to Macao, China. Egypt\u2019s Hana Goda and nine-time champion Dina Meshref will return to the World Cup, whilst Mariam Alhodaby qualified for her second appearance. Nigeria\u2019s Quadri Aruna and defending champion Omar Assar both secured their spots with commanding 4-0 victories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty-four players from around the globe have secured their spots for the ITTF Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s World Cup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4123,"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-9253","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\/2025\/10\/Award-Ceremony_WTT-China-Smash-2025_Day-6_001_2be41642-71c0-4b53-a3f8-f7eeef438f7a.jpg",1920,1080,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Award-Ceremony_WTT-China-Smash-2025_Day-6_001_2be41642-71c0-4b53-a3f8-f7eeef438f7a-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Award-Ceremony_WTT-China-Smash-2025_Day-6_001_2be41642-71c0-4b53-a3f8-f7eeef438f7a-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Award-Ceremony_WTT-China-Smash-2025_Day-6_001_2be41642-71c0-4b53-a3f8-f7eeef438f7a-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Award-Ceremony_WTT-China-Smash-2025_Day-6_001_2be41642-71c0-4b53-a3f8-f7eeef438f7a-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Award-Ceremony_WTT-China-Smash-2025_Day-6_001_2be41642-71c0-4b53-a3f8-f7eeef438f7a-1536x864.jpg",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Award-Ceremony_WTT-China-Smash-2025_Day-6_001_2be41642-71c0-4b53-a3f8-f7eeef438f7a.jpg",1920,1080,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Award-Ceremony_WTT-China-Smash-2025_Day-6_001_2be41642-71c0-4b53-a3f8-f7eeef438f7a-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Award-Ceremony_WTT-China-Smash-2025_Day-6_001_2be41642-71c0-4b53-a3f8-f7eeef438f7a-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/category\/newsbeat\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Award-Ceremony_WTT-China-Smash-2025_Day-6_001_2be41642-71c0-4b53-a3f8-f7eeef438f7a.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9253","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=9253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9254,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9253\/revisions\/9254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}