Taiwanese badminton player Lin Chun-yi yesterday won the men’s singles final of the India Open, surging past world No. 4 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in straight games to win his first title since 2024.
Following two disappointing runners-up finishes last year at the Orleans Masters and the China Masters, and a hard first-round loss to compatriot and world No. 5 Chou Tien-chen in the Malaysia Open earlier this month, Lin held on at the BWF Super 750 tournament in New Delhi to grab an early win for the year.
The 26-year-old world No. 12 Taiwanese defeated Christie 21-10, 21-18 in a speedy 38 minutes at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Arena in New Delhi, recording his second consecutive victory over the Indonesian. Lin most recently beat Christie at the China Masters in Shenzhen in September last year.
Photo: Reuters
Lin on Saturday beat Canada’s Victor Lai 21-9, before dropping the second 6-21, to emerge victorious from a tight back-and-forth third game 22-20.
After Saturday’s match, Lin said he and Lai trained together in Taiwan last year, adding that the Canadian was difficult to beat in practice.
Lin sustained a muscle strain earlier this month at the Malaysia Open that had made walking difficult, but insisted on playing in India, only the second time he has contended for a Super 750 title.
Lai said that Lin’s attacking power was difficult to defend against, even though he anticipated it.
The Canadian said nerves and fatigue affected his performance after a lengthy match the previous day.
At last year’s China Master’s, Lin missed out on his first Super 750 title with a 21-11, 21-15 loss to China’s Weng Hongyang in the final.
Lin won two Super 300 titles in 2024, the Taipei Open and the Swiss Open, as well as the Thailand Masters in 2023 and the US Open in 2019.
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,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS