Site Products

Fan Falls in Frankfurt: Two Koreans Reach Quarters

(by Steve Hopkins)

With half of the Round of 16 matches complete at the WTT Champions Series Event in Frankfurt, Korea already has to players through to the Quarterfinal Round.  One of those Korean players, Butterfly-sponsored Lee Sangsu, captured today’s headlines by upsetting World No. 1 Fan Zhendong 3-1.  Zhendong and Sangsu are familiar with each other having played 20 times – and Sangsu has a better record than most if you consider both singles and doubles – as by that calculation he has won 25% of their matches.  However, today was the first time Sangsu secured a win in Singles.  Today, it was Lee Sangsu who won the first game (11-7).  Fan then took the second game 9-11 to even the score.  The next two games were both tight throughout, but Lee Sangsu won Game 3 11-8 and then held on for a 13-11 win in the final game.

Lee Sangsu is now waiting to play the winner of the Dang Qiu / Felix Lebrun “Battle of the European Penholders” match scheduled for Thursday evening.  Dimitrij Ovtcharov won his match Round of 16 match today, closing out his 3-2 win with a final game 11-9 victory over Mattias Falck.  Ovtcharov will face the winner of Ma Long and Omar Assar.

In the bottom half of the draw, Wang Chuqin cruised past Liam Pitchford and into the Quarters.  Chuqin will face Lim Jonghoon who upset World No. 5 Liang Jingkun 3-1.  Korea, who logged wins today over World No. 1 and World No. 5, may be giving notice that they are the second best team in the world – a team that currently features Jang Woojin (No. 9), Lim Jonghoon (No. 15), and Lee Sangsu (No. 27) – but after this week, could see three players all ranked in the Top 15.  Lin Yun-Ju will be favored in his match against Benedikt Duda, and Tomokazu Harimoto will be favored in his match against Jonathan Groth as the last two Round of 16 matches are played on Thursday.  The winners of those two matches will face each other on Friday.

Bernadette Szocs is the headliner on the Women’s side as earlier today she upset World No. 2 Chen Meng 3-2.  Momentum spun surprisingly in the match with Chen Meng winning twice easily 11-4 and 11-5, but all three close games went to Szocs (11-8, 13-11, and 12-10 in the final game).  Szocs now faces Japan’s Hina Hayata.  Sun Yingsha and Shing Yubin will face each other in the Quarters.  The other seeded players are still in action tomorrow including Wang Manyu, Mima Ito, and Wang Yidi.

Lots of quality table tennis on tap all week long – we’ll have more updates soon.

Visit ButterflyOnline.com for the latest table tennis news and results.

Latest News

Shorten Your Swing

July 4, 2025
WAIT FUNCTION: Serve short backspin or side backspin to Forehand or Backhand, Robot plays long 1 backspin push… Read More

Bob Chen Attacking Backhand Flick: Butterfly Training Tips

July 4, 2025
(by: Bowmar Sports) Bob Chen Bob Chen Attacking Backhand Flick: Butterfly Training Tips https://youtu.be/RyFTvjLyHk4 Stay “In The Loop” with Butterfly… Read More

Derek May Bowmar Sports Interview

July 3, 2025
(by: Bowmar Sports) In this Bowmar Sports Interview, Coach Taiwo Adeyinka interviews long time Sponsored player, Derek May.… Read More

Apolonia ZLC + Dignics 09C + Dignics 09C Racket Review

July 2, 2025
(by Bowmar Sports) In this video, Coach Brian Pace reviews and dives deep into one of Butterfly’s elite… Read More

Open Up Your Body

July 2, 2025
WAIT FUNCTION: Serve short backspin or side backspin to Backhand, Robot plays long backspin push to Backhand, Backhand… Read More

Kanak Jha and Sally Moyland are National Singles Champions

July 2, 2025
(by Steve Hopkins) Kanak Jha arrived in Ontario, California for the start of the US National Table Tennis… Read More

Darryl Tsao – Forehand Counterloop: Butterfly Training Tips

July 2, 2025
(by: Bowmar Sports) In this Butterfly Training Tips, Darryl Tsao is explaining the benefits of the Forehand Counterloop… Read More

#1 Putting time pressure on the opponent with quick attacks

July 1, 2025
[Feature] [Special Feature] America’s star! Jha’s strong points #1 Putting time pressure on the opponent with quick attacks… Read More
View All News

Get the latest from Butterfly

Stay “In The Loop” with Butterfly professional table tennis equipment, table tennis news, table tennis technology, tournament results, and We Are Butterfly players, coaches, clubs and more.