The morning after capturing a bronze medal in the mixed doubles, Taiwanese table tennis stars Lin Yun-ju and Cheng I-ching met different fates in their opening-round singles matches at the Olympics Games in Tokyo.
Lin, seeded fifth in the men’s singles, was in control throughout his opening-round match and defeated Anton Kaellberg of Sweden 11-5, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-9 in 42 minutes, never trailing by more than two points.
He won despite getting only about five hours of sleep after his mixed doubles final on Monday night. The 19-year-old got to bed at about 1am and woke up at 6am to prepare for his 9am match.
Photo: Reuters
“Yesterday’s win didn’t change anything. Today was a new start,” he said.
He then took 58 minutes to beat Gustavo Tsuboi of Brazil 11-5, 11-7, 11-2, 9-11, 9-11, 13-11 in the round of 16 in the afternoon.
In his first game against Tsuboi, Lin took a small early lead and gradually widened it in the second half.
Photo: Reuters
In the second game, Lin opened up an early lead of four points, and although Tsuboi managed to even the score 6-6, Lin went on to score three consecutive points to win 11-7.
In the third game, Lin easily defeated Tsuboi 11-2 in just six minutes, which took the Taiwanese player one win away from victory.
Lin lost the next two games 9-11, and Tsuboi jumped to a four-point lead at the beginning of the sixth game, but Lin saved three match points at the end to gain a hard-won 13-11 victory.
While Lin overcame his lack of sleep, Cheng, seeded fourth in the women’s singles, never seemed to shake off the emotions of the previous night against an opponent who was in top form in their round-of-32 match.
Cheng lost in straight games to 26th seed Yu Mengyu of Singapore 11-5, 11-9, 12-10, 11-6 in perhaps less of an upset than the seedings suggested, as Yu began the day with a 10-3 edge over her Taiwanese opponent.
Cheng was aware of that, remembering her last loss against the Singaporean at the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018.
“Her style of play is probably my kryptonite,” Cheng said after the defeat.
Cheng appeared out of sorts early on, making several unforced errors, and she could not keep up with her opponent, especially on the big points.
Cheng did not blame the previous night’s match for her defeat, but admitted she was not at her best.
“I wasn’t able to carry yesterday’s rhythm into today’s game,” she said.
However, her opponent said the bronze medal match played into the result.
“I had a day to rest yesterday, while Cheng might have used all her energy on mixed doubles,” Yu was quoted as saying by Channel News Asia.
In women’s singles, three-time Taiwanese Olympian Chen Szu-yu defeated Lily Zhang of the US in four straight games, propelling her into the round of 16.
Chen, ranked No. 26 in the world, bested world No. 31 Zhang 11-8, 11-7, 11-6, 12-10 in 33 minutes at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gym.
Chen then faced world No. 3 Sun Yingsha (孫穎莎) of China, but only took 36 minutes to lose 6-11, 12-14, 3-11, 10-12.
In the men’s singles, Taiwan’s Chaung Chih-yuan was ousted by Egypt’s Omar Assar 8-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 7-11.
Additional reporting by staff reporter
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