World Team Table Tennis Championships 2026: Chinese Taipei edge past Sweden into the men’s semi-finals

It took five matches and two hours and 38 minutes of play, but Chinese Taipei (Lin Yun-Ju, Kuo Guan-Hong, Feng Yi-Hsin) are through to the men’s semi-finals at the 2026 World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, England.

Facing Sweden (Truls Möregårdh, Anton Källberg, Elias Ranefur) – silver medallists in the men’s team event at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 – in the quarter-finals on Thursday, 7 May, the reigning bronze medallists were left with little room for error.

World No. 7 Lin Yun-Ju got the match off to a perfect start, defeating world No. 2 Truls Möregårdh in three-straight games, 11-8, 11-9, 13-11, during one of the most anticipated individual match-ups of the quarter-finals.

Kuo Guan-Hong followed suit, edging out Anton Källberg in a tight five-game match, 4-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, giving Chinese Taipei a two-match lead heading into the third individual match between Feng Yi-Hsin and Elias Ranefur.

While Ranefur was the lowest-ranked amongst the Swedish heading into the match, he provided the team with a win when it was most needed, dismissing world No. 73 Feng in four games, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-5.

Möregårdh then made up for his loss in the first match, earning a three-game victory over Kuo, 11-6, 11-8, 12-10. Momentum was now with the Swedes heading into the decisive fifth match.

But Chinese Taipei’s first-match hero, Lin, would have none of it. He made quick work of Olympic medallist Källberg, dismissing the outmatched Swede in three games, 11-8, 11-9, 11-5, to snatch victory at the last possible moment and send the Swedish side packing.

Chinese Taipei will join Japan in the semi-finals, after the East Asian team won another blockbuster quarter-final against Germany, 3-1, earlier in the day.

Germany’s women’s team made up for that loss by defeating Hong Kong, China 3-1, while the People’s Republic of China shut out the Republic of Korea in the first women’s quarter-final match at the OVO Arena.

More quarter-final action is due up on Friday, 8 May.

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