The Egyptian pair of Youssef Abdelaziz and Mohamed El-Beiali has etched their names into the history books by becoming the first African duo to reach the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles event at the 2025 ITTF World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
Starting unseeded, the pair launched their campaign with a dramatic comeback victory in the opening round, overturning a 0-2 deficit to defeat their Turkish opponents 3-2.
Their momentum only grew stronger in the second round, where they stunned the tournament’s seventh seeds, South Korea’s Lim Jonghoon and An Jaehyun, with a commanding 3-0 win.
Abdelaziz and El-Beiali on Tuesday continued their remarkable run by sweeping past Slovakia’s Yang Wang and Konstantinos Angelakis of Greece in another dominant 3-0 performance, securing their place in the last eight — a first for any African pair in this event.
They now face their toughest challenge yet: a quarterfinal clash against the tournament’s No. 2 seeds, Japan’s Hiroto Shinozuka and Shunsuke Togami, with hopes of setting a new African benchmark.
Meanwhile, in the women’s singles, Egypt’s Hana Goda showed resilience but bowed out in the third round after a 4-0 loss (7-11, 10-12, 4-11, 7-11) to World No. 2 Wang Yidi of China — an improvement on her second-round finish in 2023.
