Taiwanese table tennis ace Lin Yun-ju on Wednesday handily downed Sweden’s Jon Persson 4-0 to advance to the round-of-32 at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Houston, Texas.
World No. 6 Lin, who had a bye to automatically advance to the second round, defeated the 35-year-old Swede 11-5, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Lin was yesterday to play South Korea’s Lim Jong-hoon.
Compatriot and fellow Olympic veteran Chuang Chih-yuan crashed out after losing to Sweden’s Truls Moregard. Moregard, who is more than half Chuang’s age at 19, downed the 40-year-old world No. 25 4-3 in a competitive seven games of 10-12, 12-10, 11-5, 11-7, 3-11, 3-11, 11-8.
Photo: AP
In the women’s singles, world No. 8 Cheng I-ching beat England’s Tin-Tin Ho 4-0 to advance to the round-of-32, where Cheng was yesterday to play Amy Wang of the US.
Taiwan’s Liu Hsing-yin and Chen Szu-yu also advanced after beating world No. 33 Elizabeta Samara 4-0 and Hong Kong’s Lee Ho Ching 4-3 respectively.
Cheng Hsien-tzu and Li Yu-jhun crashed out after losing to Ukraine’s Margaryta Pesotska and Singapore’s Feng Tianwei respectively.
Photo: Erik Williams-USA TODAY
In the men’s doubles, Feng Yi-hsin and Huang Yan-cheng were yesterday to play fellow Taiwanese Chen Chien-an and Chuang Chih-yuan after Feng and Huang beat Puerto Rico’s Daniel Gonzalez and Brian Afanador 3-0.
The world No. 8 duo of Chen Chien-an and Chuang earned a bye through the first round.
In the women’s doubles, the world No. 39 pairing of Cheng Hsien-tzu and Liu along with the duo of Chen Szu-yu and Li both earned a bye to advance to yesterday’s round, when they were to play Luxembourg’s Sarah De Nutte and Xia Lian Ni, and Japan’s Mima Ito and Hina Hayata respectively.
In the mixed doubles, the world No. 2 Taiwanese duo of Cheng I-ching and Lin, who won Taiwan a silver medal at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, were yesterday to play the Swedish pairing of Moregard and Christina Kallberg.
The world No. 58 Taiwanese duo of Chen Szu-yu and Chen Chien-an, who on Tuesday devastated Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut and Padasak Tanviriyavechakul 3-0, were yesterday to face off against South Korea’s world No. 14 pairing of Jang Woo-jin and Jeon Ji-hee.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
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