Taiwanese 17-year-old table tennis player Lin Yun-ju on Sunday won the men’s singles title at the T2 Diamond tournament in Malaysia.
The teenager defeated China’s Fan Zhendong, who was the word’s top-ranked player in the first six months of the year, 4-1 in the final.
In the first game, Lin took a 10-5 lead and kept up the pressure on Fan to win 11-7.
Lin continued to play to a high level in the second game, which he won 11-4, but Fan then found his form to briefly threaten a comeback as he took the third game 11-8.
Trailing Fan 4-5 at the beginning of the fourth game, the young Taiwanese rallied to take the next seven points in a row and win the game 11-5.
Lin scored another five consecutive points in the fifth game to prevail 5-0.
Commenting on Lin’s victory, Lin Hsueh-i, the newly crowned champion’s father, told the Central News Agency yesterday that he watched the whole game and is delighted that his son won.
He also expressed his gratitude to the National Sports Training Center, where his son trained, and also the Sports Administration.
The T2 Diamond tournament is based on a no-deuce, time-based format. If at the 24th minute of play, neither player has won fours games the match enters a “Fast Five” format until one of the players has won four games.
The T2 Diamond Table Tennis League is a series of professional events organized in collaboration with the International Table Tennis Federation.
It features the top 32 male and female players in the world, competing across three tournaments for a combined purse of US$1.5 million.
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