Taiwanese Lin Yun-ju on Tuesday defeated a Greek opponent to reach the semi-finals of the boy’s singles table tennis tournament at the Summer Youth Olympic Games, putting him in position to win a medal.
The 17-year-old rebounded quickly after losing the first game to overwhelm Inoannis Sgouropoulos 6-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6, 11-5.
Lin was to play 15-year-old world No. 8 Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan in the semi-finals yesterday.
Meanwhile, tennis player Tseng Chun-hsin of Taiwan beat Chinese Mu Tao 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to advance to the quarter-finals of the boy’s singles competition.
The 17-year-old said before the match that he would just play to his strengths and “focus on myself, regardless of my opponent’s form, and do whatever I can to play my best.”
Tseng was to play Argentinian Facundo Diaz Acosta, also 17, yesterday.
Asked about that match, Tseng said he would stay positive.
“I can’t get too conservative and can’t let my opponent or the crowd affect me. I just have to focus on myself,” he said.
The third Youth Olympics opened in Buenos Aires on Saturday last week and is to run through Thursday next week. It attracted 4,000 athletes aged 15 to 18 from 206 nations and areas to compete in 32 events.
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