Day four of WTT Champions Montpellier completes the last 16, with 11 matches deciding the rest of the quarter-final line-up. The women's top seed, Wang Manyu, opens the day against her teammate Chen Yi, who beat Miwa Harimoto in the Asian Championships final on Sunday, and Sun Yingsha plays South Korea's Shin Yubin.
In the men's draw, France's last two players are both in action: Simon Gauzy meets Liang Jingkun in the afternoon and Félix Lebrun, the second seed, faces China's Zhou Qihao in the evening. Play starts at 11am UK time, midday in Montpellier, and the evening session begins at 5.30pm.
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The big matches
Wang Manyu v Chen Yi (11am UK). Wang, 27, is the world No 1 and top seed, and needed to recover from 9-6 down in the first game to beat Egypt's Hana Goda on Wednesday, winning all three games 11-9. Chen, 22 and the 10th seed, is ranked ninth and won the Asian title in Tashkent last week. She beat Taiwan's Peng Yu-han after losing the first game on Tuesday. The winner plays Japan's Hitomi Sato or Germany's Sabine Winter in the quarter-finals.
Sun Yingsha v Shin Yubin (12.10pm UK). Sun, the second seed, beat France's Camille Lutz 11-6, 11-5, 11-3 in under 21 minutes on Tuesday in her first match back after injury. Shin, 22 and ranked 12th, beat Taiwan's Cheng I-Ching in straight games. The winner meets Japan's Hina Hayata or Romania's Bernadette Szőcs.
Simon Gauzy v Liang Jingkun (12.45pm UK). Gauzy, 32, beat the world No 3, Tomokazu Harimoto, 15-13, 11-7, 11-6 on Wednesday to give the home crowd their first big win of the week. Liang, 30, has slipped to 39th in the world but beat Wen Ruibo, the 13th seed, 3-0 on Thursday. The winner plays Jang Woojin, who beat Lin Yun-Ju 12-10 in the fifth game on Thursday evening.
Zhou Qihao v Félix Lebrun (7.15pm UK). Lebrun, 20, is the world No 2 and won this event in 2024. He beat Denmark's Anders Lind 11-8, 11-3, 11-3 in 15 minutes 33 seconds on Tuesday, the quickest match of the tournament so far. Zhou, 29 and the 12th seed, lost the first two games 11-5, 11-5 to South Korea's Oh Junsung on Wednesday and then won the next three. The winner meets Germany's Patrick Franziska or Sweden's Elias Ranefur.
Miwa Harimoto and the Japanese women
With all of Japan's men out after Sora Matsushima's defeat by Vladimir Sidorenko on Thursday, three Japanese women remain. Miwa Harimoto, 18 and the third seed, plays Lily Zhang of the US at 1.20pm. Harimoto has won the last three WTT Champions events, in Chongqing, Yokohama and Macau, and is chasing a fourth in a row. Zhang, 30, is ranked 31st.
Hina Hayata, the sixth seed, plays Szőcs at 6.40pm, and Sato, the eighth seed, meets Winter, last year's runner-up here, in the last match of the day at 7.50pm.
Kuai Man and Adriana Diaz
China's Kuai Man, the fifth seed, survived extra points in the deciding game against Wales's Anna Hursey on Wednesday. She plays Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico at 5.30pm. Diaz, the world No 20, won the Americas title in Lima last week and beat South Korea's Joo Cheonhui in straight games on Thursday. She turns 26 on Saturday.
The rest of the men's last 16
Lin Shidong, the eighth seed, plays South Korea's An Jaehyun at 11.35am for a quarter-final against Truls Moregard. Franziska, who beat Alexis Lebrun from two games down, meets Ranefur at 1.55pm, and Hugo Calderano, the sixth seed, plays Dimitrij Ovtcharov at 6.05pm. The winner of that match faces Sidorenko.
Order of play
All times UK (GMT) and approximate: matches follow one another on a single table, so they may start later if earlier matches run long.
- 11am: Wang Manyu (CHN) v Chen Yi (CHN), women's singles, last 16
- 11.35am: Lin Shidong (CHN) v An Jaehyun (KOR), men's singles, last 16
- 12.10pm: Shin Yubin (KOR) v Sun Yingsha (CHN), women's singles, last 16
- 12.45pm: Simon Gauzy (FRA) v Liang Jingkun (CHN), men's singles, last 16
- 1.20pm: Miwa Harimoto (JPN) v Lily Zhang (USA), women's singles, last 16
- 1.55pm: Patrick Franziska (GER) v Elias Ranefur (SWE), men's singles, last 16
- 5.30pm: Adriana Diaz (PUR) v Kuai Man (CHN), women's singles, last 16
- 6.05pm: Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER) v Hugo Calderano (BRA), men's singles, last 16
- 6.40pm: Hina Hayata (JPN) v Bernadette Szőcs (ROU), women's singles, last 16
- 7.15pm: Zhou Qihao (CHN) v Félix Lebrun (FRA), men's singles, last 16
- 7.50pm: Sabine Winter (GER) v Hitomi Sato (JPN), women's singles, last 16
How to watch
Both sessions are streamed live on World Table Tennis's YouTube channel, and the stream is on Eleven's WTT Champions Montpellier page and homepage, with live scores from every match. Matches up to the last 16 are the best of five games; from Saturday's quarter-finals they are the best of seven.
Day three in brief
Sidorenko beat Matsushima 12-10, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, Jang beat Lin Yun-Ju in the longest match of the day, and Moregard came from a game down to beat Shunsuke Togami. Wang Yidi beat Elizabeta Samara in 20 minutes 20 seconds and will play Chen Xingtong, who beat Annett Kaufmann, in the quarter-finals. Read the full day three review.
