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.
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