Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju was outclassed in the final of the men’s singles at the T2 Diamond Singapore table tennis tournament, losing in straight games to Xu Xin of China on Sunday.
Xu won 11-9, 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 and while Lin showed some fight, he was forced to stay on the defensive throughout the match as he struggled to keep pace with his opponent’s array of attacking shots.
Despite starting with a service error, Xu generally held a one or two-point lead through the first game. Lin tied it at 9-9, but the Chinese player won the next two points to seize the initiative.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Lin took a 3-0 lead in the second game, but gave that up with a string of errors. A big rally saw Lin send Xu well back, giving the Taiwanese an opening to smash a winner, but more errors let Xu run away 11-5 to give him firm control of the match.
Lin’s timing remained off in the third game as Xu took a 5-1 lead. The youngster fought back to level at 8-8, staving off the possibility of the first match of the “fast five” tournament finishing inside the 24-minute limit before which shortened matches are played, but the Chinese favorite snatched the final three points before dominating the final game.
Lin, 18, from Yuanshan Township, Yilan County, reached the final at the Our Tampines Hub with a semi-final victory over another Chinese player, Lin Gaoyuan, and has drawn attention since he won the T2 Diamond Malaysia title in July, but 29-year-old Xu — who has 14 World Tour Singles titles and won Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 — showed his class and experience.
The T2 Diamond Table Tennis League is a series of annual professional events in Malaysia, China and Singapore organized in collaboration with the International Table Tennis Federation.
It features the top 32 male and female players in the world, competing in three tournaments for a combined purse of US$1.5 million, the league’s Web site says.
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