Table Tennis World Championships in London
Successful German tournament start and criticism of the mode
May 2, 2026 – 5:48 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The German table tennis men defeated the favorites Japan 3-2 at the World Team Championships in London – the women also won their opening match. Despite the successes, the players rise to the barricades.
At the start of the Team Table Tennis World Championships in London, the German men defeated title candidates Japan 3-2. The women also won their first game – against France 3-1. The tournament is overshadowed by criticism of the new mode, which the German association had already officially complained to the ITTF, the world association, before the World Cup.
The outstanding player in the men’s victory was the former individual European champion Dang Qiu. He beat both top Japanese players without losing a set. In the decisive fifth match, Benedikt Duda defeated Sora Matsushima, number eight in the world rankings, 3-2. Patrick Franziska completed the German trio.
In the women’s category, world number nine Sabine Winter, Nina Mittelham and Ying Han secured the 3-1 win against France. The team is the reigning European champions of 2025.
The World Cup takes place at Wembley Arena. London was the venue for the first ever Table Tennis World Championships in 1926. For the 100th anniversary, the ITTF introduced a new mode. In the first week, 56 teams played in 14 groups of four to determine 24 participants for the knockout round. The seven best teams in the world plus hosts England only enter this weekend. They will play out their seedings for the knockout round starting on Monday. The German teams cannot be eliminated after their group phase.
In an official letter to the ITTF, the German association criticized the format as too long, too complicated and too stressful for the athletes. Former world number one Dimitrij Ovtcharov joined the criticism: “The new World Cup system is very difficult. You can lose the first three games and still become world champion. But you can also win all three and have achieved nothing yet.”
