It doesn’t matter if you’re the fourth-ranked men’s singles player in the world. It doesn’t matter if you’re the second-ranked men’s doubles duo in the world. It doesn’t even matter if you won the last WTT series you participated in.
Anything can happen at WTT China Smash 2025.
Truls Moregardh (Men’s Singles No. 5) lost in a shocking Round of 16 upset to Japan’s Yukiya Uda (No. 33) on Thursday. Moregardh won the men’s singles tournament at WTT Europe Smash 2025 just five weeks prior, but Uda only needed four games to end Moregardh’s hopes of a repeat Grand Smash championship.
Moregardh began the first game by scoring five consecutive points. He cooled off a bit in the points that followed, but he still maintained a comfortable lead over Uda.
That is, until the 11th point. Uda turned his 8-3 deficit into a 9-8 lead with six straight points, and Moregardh couldn’t figure out how to stop him. Just a few points later, Uda took the game 11-9.
Uda’s onslaught continued into the second game, as he pummeled his opponent with seven consecutive points before Moregardh could put himself on the board. Moregardh eventually found his footing, and he even cut his seemingly insurmountable deficit to just three points. But he couldn’t dig himself out of the early hole Uda put him in, and he ultimately lost that game 11-6.
Moregardh took slight control of the third game until the 11th point, when the score was 6-5 in Moregardh’s favor. At that moment, Moregardh began a 4-0 scoring run to put the game almost out of reach for Uda. Uda scored two more points, but he gave up one more to give Moregardh the third game, 11-7.
That scoring run could have been what saved Moregardh from elimination in the third game. But it wasn’t enough to turn the match in his favor. The fourth game began with a familiar early attack for Uda, who opened the game with four points to Moregardh’s zero. Moregardh stopped his opponent’s run for a few points of back-and-forth table tennis, but Uda then scored three more to undo all of that progress.
Moregardh temporarily halted Uda’s assault by scoring one point, the last point Moregardh would score in the tournament. One more 3-0 run would earn Uda the game and the match, which ended with an 11-3 domination over one of the world's best table tennis players.
Uda was a semifinalist at WTT Singapore Smash 2022, and he recently won the men’s singles title at WTT Feeder Cappadocia II 2025.
In Beijing this week, Uda earned an impressive victory over Korea’s Lin Yun-Ju (No. 11) before taking down Moregardh.
Uda advances to the quarterfinals with this victory, and he will face China’s Lin Shidong (No. 2) on Friday.
