Taiwanese paddlers Lin Yun-ju and Liao Cheng-ting on Sunday clinched the men’s doubles title at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender Almaty tournament in Kazakhstan after a spectacular 3-2 turnaround win against Swedish pairing Mattias Falck and Anton Kallberg.
The world No. 24 men’s doubles duo from Taiwan were down two games 7-11, 9-11 to the world No. 2 Swedish pairing before making an improbable comeback to win the next three games 11-7, 11-5, 11-1 in a match that lasted 34 minutes, 43 seconds at the Table Tennis Centre ADD in Almaty.
On the same day, Lin lost the men’s singles final to German world No. 32 Ruwen Filus 11-7, 12-10, 11-7, 7- 11, 9-11, 5-11, 7-11, a game that lasted 1 hour, 3 minutes and 52 seconds.
Photo: screen grab from the World Table Tennis Web site
The left-handed Lin went into the men’s singles as the top seed and world ranked No. 7. He sailed through most of the earlier rounds and dug deep to come from behind and defeat world No. 33 Falck 11-7, 7-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-9 in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Lin triumphed in the mixed doubles with Chen Szu-yu, who defeated Xu Haidong and Wu Yangchen of China 11-7, 11-13, 17-15, 7-11, 11-6 in the final on Saturday.
The Contender Almaty in Kazakhstan is the last WTT Series event before the World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in Chengdu, China, to be held from Friday next week to Oct. 9.
EARLY LOSSES: Some sports have already started at the Asian Games in Hangzhou ahead of the opening ceremony on Saturday, including volleyball, with a Taiwan loss South Korea’s bid for a third straight men’s gold medal in soccer at the Asian Games got off to the perfect start with a 9-0 thrashing of Kuwait on Tuesday, but coach Hwang Sun-hong is giving his players little time to enjoy it. With a more testing group match against Thailand today, Hwang is wary of complacency creeping in after his side ran riot against Kuwait in Jinhua, China, southwest of host city Hangzhou. “We’ll pretend this match never happened,” Hwang said after the Kuwait game, Yonhap news agency reported. “We have even more difficult matches coming up later, and we have
‘NOTHING HAS CHANGED’: Jenni Hermoso said that the striking players had been ‘caught by surprise’ by the call-ups, saying it was a strategy to intimidate them Striking Spanish internationals called up to the women’s team on Monday reiterated their desire not to form part of the squad in a new blow for the shaken the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). However, they were told by the government early yesterday that those who did not attend the team’s camps when called up would have to be punished. Spanish National Sports Council president Victor Francos said he would have to apply the country’s sports law. “If they don’t turn up, the government would have to apply the law, which is a pity for me, but the law is the
China hopes to make a splash with the Asian Games, which officially open tomorrow, but nationwide excitement has been muted as the economy sputters and some question the cost of the sporting extravaganza. Delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic, the quadrennial Games, kicking off in the eastern city of Hangzhou, will be China’s biggest sporting event in more than a decade, with more than 12,000 athletes from 45 nations competing in 40 sports. Organizers this week expressed confidence in holding a “magnificent” Games, thanks to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “important instructions” and great, broad-based efforts. Analysts agree the event would likely
Hong Kong is one of the smaller Asian Games teams by population, but when it comes to fencing the territory is a regional heavyweight with ambitious medal hopes. Edgar Cheung won gold at the Tokyo Games two years ago — Hong Kong’s first Olympic fencing title and first Olympic gold in any sport in 25 years. It turned Cheung into a celebrity overnight and prompted parents across the territory to rush and sign their children up for fencing classes. Cheung’s historic win in the foil competition was a much-needed dose of good news for a territory mired in social unrest and COVID-19 gloom
RSS