Women’s Singles

Top seed and defending champion Sun Yingsha cruised through to the next round, beating Pyon Song Gyong of People’s Republic of Korea 11-1, 11-5, 11-9, 11-4.

Miu Hirano, the no. 15 seed, was knocked out by Lea Rakovac of Croatia in one of the shocks of the day. Rakovac won 11-8, 7-11, 12-10, 5-11, 11-6, 11-7. An ecstatic Rakovac said, “I prepared my tactics well, and I had a good warm-up. I just wanted to play my game. And as usual, as with every match, I always have respect against everybody. It does not matter which player I play against. But today, my tactic was good. I was better and faster.”

In another upset, Lily Zhang, the no. 18 seed from USA, was knocked out by Li Yu-Jhun of Chinese Taipei. Li put in a strong performance, coming back from a game down to eliminate the experienced Zhang 4-1 (9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7).

Suthasini Sawettabut, who defeated no. 25 seed Sreeja Akula in the earlier round, could not continue her momentum as she lost to Natalia Bajor of Poland. The Thai player lost 1-4 (9-11, 8-11, 11-13, 11-8, 10-12) in a tight match that lasted 45 minutes.

No. 14 seed Adriana Diaz from Puerto Rico had to fight hard against her Chinese Taipei opponent Tsai Yun-En. She won 7-11, 11-6, 11-3, 11-8, 6-11, 11-5 in the presence of her parents. In the post-match interview, she promised to play “more crazy shots, risky shots and trick shots” to enthral the crowd in the matches to come.

Elizabeta Samara, the no. 24 seed, withdrew from her match against Izabela Lupulesku of Serbia due to injury. After losing the first game 5-11, the Romanian could play no further, thereby gifting Izabela the match.

Men’s Singles

In the biggest upset yet of the Men’s singles, Tom Jarvis defeated No. 10 seed German Dang Qui in a thrilling seven game encounter. The Englishman won the first 3 games before Qiu fought back to level the match at 3-3. But it was Jarvis’ day as he managed to win the deciding game to go through to the next round. Jarvis won 11-9, 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 1-11, 6-11, 11-8 in a match that lasted over an hour for a career best victory.

In his post-match interview, Jarvis reflected, “I’ve been watching Dang Qiu for years. He’s a European champion and is someone all of us from Europe look up to, and you see the hard work he puts in. I don’t really know how to go into these matches. I had a chat with my coaches and sports psychologist, just trying to think about what I can do and not focus on who I am playing.”

Another upset saw Omar Assar, the no. 23 seed, fall to Marcos Freitas from Portugal. This match lasted 1 hour 8 minutes with both players giving it their all, leading to a nail biting finish. In the end, Freitas won 6-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-3, 11-8, 8-11, 12-10.

Belgium’s Adrien Rassenfosse put in the performance of a lifetime, as he beat No.32 seed German Ricardo Walther in a marathon 7 game match which again lasted for more than an hour. He triumphed 11-4, 11-13, 8-11, 11-9, 11-6, 10-12, 11-9.

Romanian Eduard Ionescu took out no. 26 seed from USA Kanak Jha. After leading 3-0, Jha let go of the lead and the match, losing 11-6, 11-7, 11-4, 5-11, 13-15, 5-11, 6-11.

Wang Chuqin, the Chinese no. 2 seed, had an easy outing against Leonardo Iizuka of Brazil taking the match 4-0 in 23 minutes.

No. 7 seed and Paris Olympics silver medallist, Sweden’s Truls Moregardh held on to a tough 4-2 win over Argentinian Francisco Sanchi. Sanchi had the enigmatic Swede in all sorts of trouble, but Moregardh was able to find a different gear for the final two games, winning them 11-2 and 11-5. “It was a tough one, he was playing really good with his backhand. I really had to work hard for every point, so it was a tough match against a very good player,” reflected Moregardh.

In one of the final matches of the day, No. 25 seed Kao Cheng-Jui overcame a 0-2 deficit to win an incredibly close contest against veteran Greek chopper Panagiotis Gionis. The match saw some exhilarating rallies, with the experienced Gionis leaving no stone unturned to retrieve each and every attacking shot from the Chinese Taipei paddler. But the young Kao managed to outlast the 45 year old Greek to progress to the Round of 32.

Mixed Doubles

Seeded pairs from both halves of the draw were shown the exit doors in the round of 32. The No. 9 seeded Indian pair of Manush Shah and Diya Chitale was outplayed in straight sets by the Korean pair of Oh Junsung and Kim Nayeong 11-8, 11-9, 11-2, while No. 6 seeds Kristian Karlsson and Christina Kallberg (Sweden) lost to Chinese Taipei pair of Lin Yun-Ju and Cheng I-Ching 1-3.

Top seeded pair of Lin Shidong and Kuai Man didn’t break much sweat against the French pair of Simon Gauzy and Prithika Pavade winning 11-4, 11-8, 11-3.

No. 11 seeded Brazilian pair of Guilherme Teodoro and Giulia Takahashi survived a tense encounter to get past the Spanish/Ukrainian pair of Daniel Berzosa and Veronika Matiunina, winning 3-2 (11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8) to move to the next round.

Japanese wunderkinds Sora Matsushima and Miwa Harimoto struggled to get past their Croatian opponents Ivor Ban and Hana Arapovic. The No. 5 seeds had to dig deep, taking the decider 11-9 to go through to the next round.

On course for their third title, Chinese world no. 2 ranked Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha defeated convincingly the Brazilian pair of Hugo Calderano and Bruna Takahashi 11-1, 11-7, 11-4 in 19 minutes to move to the next round.

Women’s Doubles

Japanese top seeds Satsuki Odo and Sakura Yokoi booked their spot in the next round with a convincing straight games victory over Kazakhstan’s Anel Bakhyt and Angelina Romanovskaya. A shaky start was quickly overcome as they won 11-9, 11-5, 11-4.

In the biggest upset of the Women’s Doubles thus far, the Chinese no. 3 seeded pair of Qian Tianyi and Chen Xingtong were knocked out by the German pair of Sabine Winter and Yuan Wan. It was a fascinating encounter in which the Germans prevailed, showing grit and determination, to win the match 5-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9. Sabine and Yuan, despite facing a tough pair and a supportive crowd, managed to hold their nerve to win by the barest of margins in the deciding game to move to the Round of 16.

The experienced European pairing of Bernadette Szocs (Romania) and Sofia Polcanova (Austria) booked their spots in the round of 16 with an easy win over the Mexican pair of Clio Barcenas and Arantxa Cossio. The no. 10 seeds won with a score line of 11-6, 11-5, 11-7.

Indian women’s pair and no. 12 seed, Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghorpade made it to the round of 16 with a 3-1 win over the Singapore pair of Zeng Jian and Ser Lin Qian 6-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-9. But their compatriots, Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee, the no. 14 seeds were defeated by the German pair of Annett Kaufmann and Xiaona Shan in three straight games. The reigning world youth champion Kaufmann teamed up with veteran Shan to outplay the strong Indian pairing, who looked nowhere close to their best. Kaufmann and Shan won 3-0 (11-1, 13-11, 11-7).

No. 9 seeded Natalia Bajor and Tatiana Kukulkova were eliminated by the strong pairing of Kim Nayeong and Lee Eunhye in another upset. The Korean pairing won in 4 nail biting games, with the final score line reading 3-1 (11-7, 10-12, 15-13, 12-10).

Men’s Doubles

The Lebrun brothers were in top form with a clinical 3-0 victory to move into the round of 16. The French top seeds beat the Iranian pair of Benyamin Faraji and Amirmahdi Keshavarzi 11-4, 11-5, 11-0. They will next meet the Swedish pair of Anton Kallberg and Truls Moregardh, who knocked out no. 12 seeded pair of Horacio Cifuentes and Santiago Lorenzo from Argentina. Having lost the first game 13-15, the Swedish dark horses came back strongly to take the match 13-15, 11-2, 11-8, 5-11, 11-6.

Youngsters from Australia Hwan Bae and Aditya Sareen, seeded 15th, were up against Ovidiu Ionescu (Romania) and Alvaro Robles (Spain). Though they managed to win the third game, they were dominated by the experienced duo and lost 1-3 (5-11, 2-11, 11-8, 5-11).

The 16th seeded pair of Chew Clarence and Chua Josh from Singapore were also eliminated in the round of 32 by the Greco-Slovak pairing of Konstantinos Angelakis and Wang Yang. In a marathon match, Angelakis and Wang fought back from the brink of defeat to win 13-11, 3-11, 6-11, 12-10, 11-7 to move to the next round.

Egyptian stalwarts Mohamed Elbeiali and Youssef Abdelaziz shocked No. 7 seeds Lim Jonghoon and An Jaehyun (Republic of Korea) to move to the Round of 16. The Egyptians, who played some of the best table tennis of their careers, won 3-0 (12-10, 12-10, 11-8) in just over thirty minutes.

No. 8 seeded Indians Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah joined the list of casualties, losing 1-3 (5-11, 9-11, 11-8, 5-11) to the strong German pairing of Benedikt Duda and Dang Qiu. The Indians struggled to find weaknesses in the Germans’ game, and a brief bright spark in the third game was quickly extinguished by the experienced Duda and Qiu.

Looking Ahead

Day 3 of the ITTF World Championships Finals Doha 2025 has truly lived up to its billing with shock upsets, dramatic comebacks, and breathtaking rallies. As we move to Day 4 tomorrow, the intensity will only increase with the Round of 32 in Singles events and the Quarter-finals in Doubles competitions. With several seeds already eliminated, the tournament remains wide open, promising more thrilling table tennis action as the world’s best continue their pursuit of glory in Doha. Follow all the live action on the WTT YouTube channel and stay updated with results here.