After two days of qualifying that whittled the field down to 32 men and 32 women in singles, the stage is now set for the top seeds as the main draw of the 2026 WTT Contender Lagos gets underway on Thursday at the Molade Okoya Thomas Hall, Teslim Balogun Stadium.
Defending champion, Anders Lind of Denmark, Japan’s Honoka Hashimoto, France’s Thibault Poret, Korea Republic’s Oh Junsung, and India’s Manav Thakkar headline the draw.
Lind, the Danish southpaw, is chasing history as the first player to defend the Lagos crown back to back, buoyed by his strong showing at the recent World Team Championships in London and the passionate Lagos crowd that carried him to glory in 2025.
In the women’s singles, Hashimoto, seeded second, faces a formidable challenge. Compatriot Satsuki Odo, Korea’s Joo Cheonhui, Romania’s Elizabeth Samara, and Egypt’s Dina Meshref are all determined to break through and claim a WTT title.
With singles, doubles, and mixed doubles all on the card, and $100,000 in prize money at stake, Lagos is primed for four days of high octane action where heavyweights will indeed take centre stage.
The annual tournament, launched on June 12, 2023 as the successor to the ITTF Nigeria Open, has been staged for three consecutive years. Building on the legacy of the Lagos International Table Tennis Classics and the ITTF Nigeria Open (established in 2013), it has grown into a major international event that consistently attracts elite global talents.