Taiwanese table tennis players Lin Yun-ju and Cheng I-ching on Saturday clinched victory to reach yesterday’s mixed doubles semi-finals at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals.
The duo defeated Lee Ho Ching and Ho Kwan Kit of Hong Kong 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6 in the quarter-finals in Houston.
Lin and Cheng won the first two games, but their opponents came back to clinch the third, which was also the first the Taiwanese duo had lost in the tournament.
Photo: AP
Lin and Cheng opened the fourth game with a 7-2 lead, then secured four match points when leading 10-6 and broke the first one.
The world No. 2 pair, who won bronze medals in mixed doubles in the Tokyo Olympics, are to play the world No. 36 duo of Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha from China. The two teams have not played against each other in previous matches.
The winners would later in the day face the victors of a match between Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata, and the pairing of China’s Lin Gaoyuan and Lily Zhang of the US.
Lin Gaoyuan and Zhang’s partnership was touted as celebrating the 50th anniversary of “ping-pong diplomacy,” in which a Chinese and an American player met at the 1971 world championships, helping to mend relations between the countries.
As there would not be a match for third place in Houston, Lin and Cheng would at least secure bronze medals.
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