LONDON, May 3 (Xinhua) -- China won two consecutive matches in the women's team Stage 1A while losing to South Korea 3-1 on the men's side on Saturday at the 2026 ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals.

In the women's team group stage, defending champion China eased past Romania and Chinese Taipei without dropping a game, while fully rotating its squad to brace for tougher matches ahead. After Sun Yingsha, Kuai Man and Wang Yidi secured the opening win, Kuai and Wang stepped on the court again to win the second group match along with Chen Xingtong.

"Every world championships feels different. As I was the first to come out of the blocks, I would feel a little nervous. I believe that as the tournament progresses, everyone will get better and better," Sun said after her win against Romania's Adina Diaconu.

"We need to prepare well for tougher matches ahead, this is the most important," the world No. 1 added.

China now leads Group 1, followed by Chinese Taipei and Romania at 1-1 each. Winless South Korea sits bottom in the group.

Also on Saturday, Japan beat host England 3-0 before notching a 3-1 victory over France, while Germany defeated France 3-1 before prevailing 3-0 over England. Japan and Germany remain unbeaten after two matches, and will vie for the group's top finisher on Sunday.

On the men's side, China kicked off its title defense with a 3-0 win over England, with Lin Shidong, Wang Chuqin and Liang Jingkun scoring one point apiece.

With world No. 1 Wang rested, China then had a tougher battle against South Korea, which it beat after a five-set thriller in the semifinal two years ago in Busan.

After Lin beat Kim Jang-won in straight games, South Korea's Oh Jun-sung scored two points by defeating Liang and Lin with the same scoreline of 3-1, coupled with An Jae-hyun's 3-1 victory over Zhou Qihao.

Sweden beat South Korea 3-0 and England 3-1 to lead Group 1. South Korea and China are both at 1-1, while England is winless from two matches.

In Group 2, France won two straight matches, 3-0 over Chinese Taipei and 3-1 over Germany. Germany and Japan both have a win-loss record of 1-1, while Chinese Taipei sits bottom at 0-2.

Group stage action continues on Sunday.

64 men's and 64 women's teams are competing in the London event. Top seven ranked teams and host England are in two groups of four in Stage 1A. All of them will directly progress to the knockout stage, but still need to compete in Stage 1A to determine their seedings for the knockout round. The remaining 56 teams in Stage 1B contend for 24 spots to complete the 32-team field in the main draw before the knockout stage starts.

The tournament runs through May 10.  ■