The first WTT Champions Series event of 2026 has reached its final day in Doha, with four men and four women left to compete on the final day. The big upset on day one was Dimitrij Ovtcharov over Hugo Calderano, but Lin Yun-Ju stepped into that void to beat Ovtcharov and then Matsushima on their way to the semifinals. Tomokazu Harimoto came to the fore in that same half of the draw, winning a tough trio of matches including Xiang Peng, Zhou Qihao and Felix Lebrun.
The top half of the draw has tested world number 2 Lin Shidong. The event’s top seed defeated Benekikt Duda 3-2 in the round of 16 and recorded a narrow 4-2 win over Liang Jingkun in the quarterfinals. Still, Lin Shidong was the first to reach the semi-finals, punching his ticket in the first of the quarter-finals on Saturday. Jang Woojin of the Republic of Korea is not a typical world number 18 as he has ranked in the top 10 and scored big wins over elite players. Still, in a section of the draw featuring Truls Moregard, Alexis Lebrun, Shunsuke Togami and Simon Gauzy, most fans did not expect Woojin to reach the semi-finals. But after securing a 3-2 victory over Alexis Lebrun (including a 16-14 defeat), he defeated Togami 3-1 and then defeated Moregard 4-1. Woojin will face Shidong on Sunday afternoon for a chance to reach the Final.
The Women’s Draw was unusually surprising. Often the top seeds on the women’s side dominate early and the results are predictable. Saturday’s games included two huge upsets in a row. Zhu Yuling defeated world number 5 Wang Yidi in the early match, with Zhu winning the first two games and then trading games to win 4–2. The next match was world number 2 Wang Manyu against German Ying Han and the two fought through a see-saw battle with neither player winning two matches in a row. Han won the first, third, fifth and the decisive seventh games to advance.
The bottom half of the draw consisted of two matches between China and Japan. In both cases, China came out on top. Chen Xingtong fell 0-2 behind Miwa Harimoto before fighting back for the 4-3 win. And Kuai Man, now the top remaining seed, took care of business in a 4-1 win over Miyu Nagasaki.
The finals start on Sunday afternoon.
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