Tokyo Olympics bronze medalists Lin Yun-ju and Cheng I-ching on Thursday won the mixed doubles title for Taiwan at the WTT Contender tournament in Doha, Qatar.
The Taiwanese world No. 1 mixed doubles duo defeated the world No. 7 Indian pairing of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra 11-4, 11-5, 11-3 to take home their first mixed doubles title of the year and the sixth since they began playing together in 2019.
Lin and Cheng have previously won mixed doubles titles in Oman; Shenzhen, China; and Hong Kong, while it was their third title in Doha.
Photo courtesy of Zheng Jia-qi via CNA
The Taiwanese pairing also played the Indian duo in the quarter-finals of the WTT Singapore Smash last week when they also won in straight games, before losing the final on Wednesday last week to Chinese duo Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin, who are No. 3 in the world, 11-3, 12-10, 11-4 in 24 minutes, 16 seconds.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese duo Huang Yi-hua and Chen Szu-yu on Thursday reached the women’s doubles final, but lost to Miyuu Kihara and Miyu Nagasaki of Japan 11-4, 11-7, 11-5.
Huang, a 37-year-old four-time Olympian, teamed up with Chen at the WTT Contender about six years after they played together at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
However, the Taiwanese duo were overpowered by the much younger Kihara, 17, and 19-year-old left-hander Nagasaki.
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