Six Chinese Players Enter US Smash via Wildcards; Two Cross-Association Doubles Pairs to Compete
On June 19 (Beijing time), WTT announced the host wildcards and nominations for the US Smash. Six Chinese players — Wang Yidi, Kuai Man, Chen Yi, Xue Fei, Qin Yuxuan and Wen Ruibo — entered via host wildcards into the men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles events. The men’s and women’s singles WTT nominations all went to overseas associations.
Host wildcards
- Men’s singles: Nandan Naresh, Liang Jishan, Daniel Tran, Quadri Aruna
- Women’s singles: Chen Yiyi, Erin Yip, Jessica Reyes-Lai
- Men’s doubles: the Naresh brothers; Liang Jishan/Botha; Xue Fei/Kanak; Florian/Dor
- Women’s doubles: Lily Zhang/Chen Yiyi; Amy Wang/Jessica Lai; Cheng I-Ching/Yeh Yi-Tian; Wang Yidi/Chen Yi
- Mixed doubles: Liang Jishan/Chen Yiyi; Naresh/Jessica Lai; Botha/Qin Yuxuan; Wen Ruibo/Kuai Man
WTT nominations
- Men’s singles: Liam Pitchford, Liam Bard, Yoshimura Maharu
- Women’s singles: Sato Hitomi, Yokoi Saki
China is fielding two cross-association pairs with the United States: men’s doubles Xue Fei/Kanak and mixed doubles Qin Yuxuan/Botha.
China has 15 players in total at this Smash — seven men and eight women — entered across all five events.
China’s full roster
- Men’s singles (main draw): Wang Chuqin, Lin Shidong, Wen Ruibo, Liang Jingkun, Zhou Qihao, Chen Yuanyu
- Men’s singles (qualifying): Huang Youzheng
- Women’s singles (main draw): Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu, Chen Xingtong, Chen Yi, Kuai Man, Wang Yidi, Shi Xunyao, Qin Yuxuan
- Men’s doubles: Lin Shidong/Huang Youzheng, Wen Ruibo/Yuan Licen, Xue Fei/Kanak (cross-association)
- Women’s doubles: Wang Manyu/Kuai Man, Wang Yidi/Chen Yi
- Mixed doubles: Sun Yingsha/Wang Chuqin, Wen Ruibo/Kuai Man, Qin Yuxuan/Botha (cross-association)
Per the ITTF’s 2026 calendar, four WTT Grand Smash events are held this year: Singapore (February), United States (July), Sweden (August) and China (October).
At last year’s US Smash, Wang Chuqin, Zhu Yuling, An Jaehyun/Lim Jonghoon, Wang Yidi/Kuai Man and Lin Shidong/Kuai Man won the men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles titles respectively.
This year Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha enter as the men’s and women’s singles top seeds and pair up as the top mixed doubles seeds.
