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🏓 Beating China at their own game?
Brazil’s Hugo Calderano made history this past weekend by winning the Table Tennis World Cup in Macao, the first time a non-Chinese player has ever won a table tennis tournament on Chinese soil
Euan Marshall
April 26, 2025 • Reading Time: 2 minutes
Calderano breaks China’s serve with World Cup win
Hugo Calderano became the first non-Chinese player to win a major table-tennis tournament on Chinese soil. Photo: Alexandre Loureiro/COB
At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the hosts played Brazil in the group stage of the men’s football tournament and were soundly beaten by three goals to nil. After the match, experienced Chinese defender Li Weifeng asked the press to cut their squad some slack, saying that China beating five-time World Cup winners Brazil at football would be as unlikely as a Brazilian player threatening China’s almost complete dominance over the sport of table tennis.
Well, 17 years later, China has still yet to beat Brazil in a game of football, but 28-year-old Hugo Calderano from Rio de Janeiro has just become the first non-Chinese player to win a major table-tennis tournament on Chinese soil, after winning the 2025 Table Tennis World Cup in Macao.
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