Taiwan men's doubles duo clinch WTT Contender Almaty tournament title

Taipei, Sept. 18 (CNA) Taiwanese paddlers Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) and Liao Cheng-ting (廖振珽) clinched the men's doubles title at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender Almaty 2022 tournament in Kazakhstan Sunday 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 and 43 seconds at Table Tennis Centre ADD in Almaty.

On the same day, Lin lost in the men's singles final to Germany's world No. 32 Ruwen Filus 11-7, 12-10, 11-7, 7-11, 9-11, 5-11, 7-11, a game that lasted one hour, three minutes and 52 seconds.

The left-handed Lin came 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 quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Lin triumphed in the mixed doubles with his partner Chen Szu-yu (陳思羽), defeating Xu Haidong (徐海東) and Wu Yangchen (吳洋晨) 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 Chengdu 2022 World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals, to be held from Sept. 30 to Oct. 9, according to the organizer.