Taiwan's Lin, Kao in ITTF World Table Tennis Championships title match

Taipei, May 25 (CNA) Taiwanese table tennis players Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) and Kao Cheng-jui (高承睿) will compete on Sunday for the men's doubles title at the 2025 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in Doha, Qatar, after ousting the world No. 1 pair a day earlier.

Lin and Kao, the sixth-seeded men's doubles team at the International Table Tennis Federation's (ITTF) premier tournament, secured a 2-0 lead in the semifinal match against world No. 1 and top-seeded French brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun at the Lusail Sports Arena in Doha on Saturday (Doha time).

The Lebrun brothers, who were part of France's bronze-medal-winning team in the men's table tennis team event at the 2024 Paris Games, took the third game and managed to build a 3-point lead during the tightly fought fourth game.

Lin and Kao, however, came back strong to book their place in Sunday's title match. The final game scores of the nearly 36.5-minute semifinal match were 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 12-10.

In a roundup of Saturday's results, the ITTF said the two Taiwanese players demonstrated "a well-balanced strategy."

"Kao's powerful shots from deep in the court complemented Lin's precise play near the table," helping the duo win the semifinal in "their impressive campaign at the 2025 World Table Tennis Championships," it said.

In a post-match interview, the two were asked about the close fourth game on Saturday.

"Didn't really think too much about that. We were a bit behind, and we just kept scores close and did it point by point," Lin said.

Lin, 23, won a bronze medal in mixed doubles with Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜) at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. He and Kao only teamed up for the men's doubles event earlier this year, and they finished second in the World Table Tennis Singapore Smash in February.

"We will go all out for the final tomorrow," Kao, 20, said in the same interview.

The pair will face the Japanese world No. 2 pairing of Hiroto Shinozuka and Shunsuke Togami in the title match on Sunday.

Taiwan had its best performance at the World Table Tennis Championships when the men's doubles team of Chuang Chih-yuan (莊智淵) and Chen Chien-an (陳建安) won the country's first gold medal in 2013.