The second round of the group stage at the ITTF World Team Championships Finals London 2026 continued to showcase strong performances from European teams.
Romania produced a confident 3-0 win over Argentina, but the scoreline did not fully reflect the fight on the table. Eduard IONESCU set the tone with a 3-1 victory over Francisco SANCHI, before Iulian CHIRITA added a straight-games win. The closest match came at the end, where Ovidiu IONESCU had to dig deep to overcome Santiago LORENZO in five games.
Poland also secured a 3-0 victory against Chile, although Marek BADOWSKI was pushed to the limit before turning his match around from 0-2 down. Milosz REDZIMSKI and Maciej KUBIK delivered solid performances to complete the win.
A particularly strong showing came from Portugal, who defeated Algeria 3-0 in a series of tightly contested matches. Marcos FREITAS and Tiago APOLONIA both came through demanding five-game encounters, while Joao GERALDO sealed the tie with a composed straight-games win.
Over in the Women’s Team event, one of the standout matches of the session came in Group 8, where Serbia edged past Thailand after a marathon battle lasting just under three hours and 15 minutes.
Sabina SURJAN proved to be the difference-maker, winning both the opening and the deciding matches. She first overcame Orawan PARANANG in five games, before holding her nerve again in the final match against Suthasini SAWETTABUT to seal a crucial victory for Serbia and put her team in control of the group.
In Group 9, Poland claimed an important 3-1 win over Spain, but it was far from straightforward. Natalia BAJOR gave Poland a strong start with a confident win over Sofia-Xuan ZHANG, before Maria XIAO responded to level the tie.
Katarzyna WEGRZYN then came through a tight five-game battle against Maria BERZOSA to restore Poland’s lead, setting the stage for BAJOR to step up once more. In another close encounter, she defeated XIAO in five games to secure the overall victory.
