Sweden delivered the upset of the 2026 ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships in London on Saturday night, beating reigning champions China 3-2 in a Group 1 thriller that ended a domestic Chinese run dating back almost three decades.
Wang Chuqin, the world number one, started his country in commanding fashion with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-6) sweep of Anton Kallberg in the opener. From there the night belonged to the Swedes. Elias Ranefur fought back from two games down to beat 2025 world singles bronze medallist Lin Shidong 3-2 (9-11, 6-11, 11-3, 11-6, 9-11), with the score reflecting how narrowly Sweden took the deciding fifth game.
The pivotal third match saw Truls Moregard, the Paris 2024 silver medallist, face Liang Jingkun. Moregard recovered from 11-9 down in the fifth to take it 12-10, sealing a 3-2 (7-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-3, 10-12) victory.
Wang restored parity with a 3-0 (12-10, 11-6, 11-4) win over Ranefur in the fourth match, leaving Kallberg to face Lin in the decider. The Swede took the second set on a deuce point and ran away with the deciding two ends to clinch a 3-1 (10-12, 12-10, 8-11, 8-11) victory and a 3-2 team result.
"Obviously, I'm really happy with the win and to contribute in a victory against China, which is huge," Ranefur said after the match.
"I do think it's possible for Sweden to fight for gold. We beat China, and they're usually the best team."
The result is China's first team match defeat at a World Championships in 26 years and reverberated through London's Copper Box Arena, where the lower bowl rose for an extended ovation as Kallberg sat down on the bench. Sweden have now positioned themselves as a credible gold-medal contender, with the men's quarter-finals to follow in midweek.
China's coach Li Sun acknowledged after the match that the 3-2 reverse exposed a depth issue the federation has been wrestling with throughout the calendar year. Wang and Lin are first-choice singles selections, but the third spot in this Worlds team format has rotated through Liang, Xiang Peng and 19-year-old Huang Youzheng — none of whom have settled into the role.
For Sweden, the win is a continuation of a national renaissance that began with Moregard's silver in Paris and accelerated with Kallberg's run to the World Cup quarter-finals last October. Coach Stellan Bengtsson told Swedish media after the match the squad had used a tactical wrinkle on Lin's serve return that disrupted his table position throughout the night.
The Swedes now move into the knockout stages with the right to remind everyone that the country's world team gold cabinet — empty since 2000 — is finally in genuine contention. China, who routinely take 25 of every 30 international titles offered, head into the quarter-finals on a Group 1 second-place seeding for the first time in living memory.
