Lim Jonghoon survives five-game thriller in Zagreb qualifying

Lim Jonghoon was forced into a full five-game fight before he could move on in Zagreb, outlasting home favorite Frane Kojic 3-2 in Men’s Singles qualifying at Arena Zagreb. In a draw built to punish any lapse, that kind of escape mattered as much as the advance itself, because the WTT Contender Zagreb 2026 qualifying bracket was already showing how quickly a seeded name could be dragged into trouble.

The event, staged in Zagreb, Croatia, ran from 9 Jun to 14 Jun 2026 with USD 100,000 in prize money, and the early rounds delivered the kind of pressure that can reshape a tournament before the main draw even starts. Saki Shibata also came through, defeating Xia Lian Ni 3-1 in Women’s Singles qualifying, while Kazuki Hamada edged Cedric Meissner 3-2 in another tight Men’s Singles battle. Martin Allegro beat Federico Vallino 3-1 and Wang Xiaotong moved past Rheann Chung, giving the qualifying stage an international look that mixed Asian and European contenders across the draw.

Shibata’s result stood out because Xia Lian Ni brought a very different kind of test. World Table Tennis lists Ni at 62 years old and ranked No. 171, a reminder that experience and awkward style can still force younger players into uncomfortable points even when the ranking gap suggests otherwise. Shibata handled that challenge in four games, but the match still fit the larger pattern in Zagreb: established names were not cruising, they were surviving.

The same pressure followed Hamada and Lim into later rounds. Hamada had to dig through another close match, beating Marek Badowski 3-1 in Qualifying Round 4, while Lim kept his run going by defeating Chang Yu-An 3-1 in Qualifying Round 4. Those results underlined the same point as the earlier five-game wins: qualifying in Zagreb was not a formality, and players who escaped the first wave still had to prove they could absorb another test.

With the International Table Tennis Federation’s 2026 calendar packed around the globe, Zagreb’s qualifying round offered a sharp snapshot of the sport’s depth. The survivors did more than advance; they exposed how thin the margin was, and how a single five-game scare could foreshadow an even harder road ahead.