Following the conclusion of Stage 1B on Friday night, it was the turn of the eight men’s and eight women’s of Stage 1A to take to the table as the competition headed for OVO Arena Wembley.

Stage 1A consists of the top seven ranked nations in the world and England as hosts, with the eight nations in each competition split into two groups of four.

The women’s groupings are:

Group one: China, Chinese Taipei, Korea Republic and Romania

Group two: Japan, Germany, France and England

The men’s groupings are:

Group one: China, Sweden, Korea Republic and England

Group two: France, Germany, Japan and Chinese Taipei

Women’s championships

The opening round of matches in the women’s championships was China v Romania, Japan v England, Chinese Taipei v Korea Republic and Germany v France.

Tianer Yu was the first player from the host nation to compete in these World Championships, however, was unable to overcome Miwa Harimoto who completed a 3-0 (11-0, 11-2, 11-7) victory of the Englishwoman.

In the second match, Tin-Tin Ho came up against Hina Hayata and, despite going down 3-1, provided plenty for the home crowd to cheer about inside the OVO Arena Wembley as the match finished 12-10, 13-11, 6-11, 11-3.

France, who struggled to qualify in the last available place via the European Championships – though would have course still received a place based on rankings – started strongly against Germany when Prithika Pavade beat Han Ying in four close games.

Sabine Winter levelled for Germany, in three against Charlotte Lutz, and the match turned on Match 3, when Nina Mittelham beat Yuan Jian Nan 3-2 (8-11, 11-5, 11-9, 13-15, 11-8) and Han Ying then completed victory as she beat Lutz in four.

Chinese Taipei defeated Korea Republic 3-1, recovering from losing the first match, when Kim Nayeong beat Wu Ying Syuan in four.

Yeh Yi-Tian overcame Korea’s Shin Yubin, also in four, to level it up and Chinese moved in front when Peng Yu-Han beat Park Gahyeon in three.

Shin fought hard to get the initiative back, but ultimately came up short despite a fine comeback against Wu, who eventually took the match 3-2 (12-10, 11-8, 11-13, 8-11, 11-8).

Romania selected a young team to face China, with no place for either Bernadette Szocs or Elizabeta Samara, their top two ranked players.

Although they equipped themselves pretty well, neither Adina Diaconu, Andreea Dragoman nor Elena Zaharia were able to take a game off, respectively Sun Yingsha (WR 1), Kuai Man (WR 7) or Wang Yidi (WR 8).

In the evening session, it was a second consecutive 3-0 win for China as Man Kuai, Yidi Wang and Xingtong Chen all recorded 3-0 victories.

The final women’s game to finish on Day Five saw Romania beat Korea Republic 3-2. Bernadette Szocs recorded two 3-0 wins, before Elizabeta Samara bounced back from a 3-1 defeat to Nayeong Kim to earn a 3-1 win of her own over Gahyeon Park.

Japan recorded their second win of the day as they beat France 3-1 (3-0, 3-0, 1-3, 3-0) to place themselves top of the Group 2 standings. Germany, who had also recorded a brace of victories sit second, with winless France and England third and fourth respectively.

In Group 1, China are the only unbeaten team and top the group, with Chinese Taipei and Romania second and third with one win and one defeat each. Korea Republic sit bottom on two defeats.

Men’s championships

The opening matches of Stage 1A in the men’s championships saw France beat Chinese Taipei, China defeat England, Sweden overcome Korea Republic and Germany win against Japan.

On Table 1, the England men took to the table at their home World Championships for the first time as Tom Jarvis, Sam Walker and Connor Green took on LinShidong , Wang Chuqin and Liang Jingkun .

Jarvis was defeated 3-0, whilst Walker gave the home crowd plenty to cheer for as he fought hard in a 3-1 defeat. Green provided even more to cheer as he lost 11-9 in the fifth game to lose 3-2 (11-7, 5-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9).

Truls Moregard gave Sweden the lead against Korea Republic as he recovered from losing the first game to An Jaehyun to win in four – but he emerged from the match with ice on his right shoulder, which could be a worry for the Swedes ahead of their evening match against England.

They went on to beat Korea 3-0 as Anton Kallberg also came from 1-0 down to beat Jang Woojin, and Mattias Karlsson recovered a 2-1 deficit to beat Oh Junsung.

France were in a hurry to beat Chinese Taipei, kick-started by Alexis Lebrun beating Kuo Guan-Hong in three. His brother Felix needed four to get the better of Feng Yi-Hsin, but it was back to a 3-0 margin as Simon Gauzy completed victory against Hsu Hsien-Chia.

Germany v Japan turned into an epic won 3-2 by Germany. It was underpinned by a superb double for Dang Qiu, beating Sora Matsushima in the first match and Tomokazu Harimoto in the fourth, both 3-0.

In between, Harimoto defeated Benedikt Duda 3-2 and it was the same score in favour of Togami Shunsuke over Patrick Franziska.

In the decider, Duda beat Matsushima in four to complete a memorable German victory.

The evening session saw Japan v Chinese Taipei, France v Germany and China v Korea Republic.

In the shock of the tournament so far, Korea Republic overcame China 3-1. In 2024, Korea Republic put themselves 2-1 up against China only to lose 3-2 but were able to make the decisive move this time around.

Lin took the first match for China 3-0, however a trio of 3-1 victories for South Korea saw them take the match as Junsung Oh twice and Jaehyum An were able to overcome their Chinese counterparts.

The final match-up saw Oh defeat Shidong 11-9, 5-11, 12-10, 11-9 the secure the moment and provide the night-time crowd with a trip home that left them knowing they’d witnessed something special.

On Table 2, Japan were the victors against Chinese Taipei as they recorded a 3-0 win. Represented by Shunsuke Togami (3-1 vs Yi-Hsin Feng), Tomokazu Harimoto (3-1 vs Guan-Hong Kuo) and Sora Matsushima (3-0 vs Jing-Kai Hung), the Japanese recorded their first win having lost earlier in the day.

Naming the same three players as their earlier victory, France were once again successful as they defeated Germany 3-1.

Benedikt Duda gave the Germans the lead thanks to a 3-1 (12-10, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5) win over Simon Gauzy, before the Lebrun brothers led France home to victory.

First up, Felix defeated Dang Qiu 3-1 (11-7, 10-12, 11-6, 11-4) before Alexis overcame Dimitrij Ovtcharov by the same score – 3-1 (11-13, 11-6, 11-5,11-6). Felix then returned to the table to claim a 3-0 (11-8, 12-10, 11-6) victory over Duda.

The Group One standings see Sweden top the table with two wins ahead of Korea Republic and China on one win and one defeat, with England bottom on two defeats.

Group Two sees France on top thanks to their two wins ahead of Germany and Japan on a win and a defeat. Chinese Taipei sit bottom after two defeats.