Taiwan's Olympics table tennis duo advances to WTT finals

Taipei, Oct. 25 (CNA) Taiwan's mixed table tennis team of Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) and Cheng I-ching (鄭怡靜) defeated their Japanese counterparts on Friday (local time) at a World Table Tennis (WTT) event in London, advancing to the finals scheduled for Sunday.

On Friday, the world No. 11 pair of Lin and Cheng defeated Japan's world No. 4 team of Sora Matsushima and Miwa Harimoto 3-1 at the WTT Star Contender London 2025 held from Tuesday to Sunday at the British capital's Copper Box Arena.

The Friday match started off in the Japanese team's favor as Matsushima and Harimoto took an early 5-1 lead in the first game.

Although Lin and Cheng were able to push hard and narrow the gap to only one point behind 6-7, the Japanese pair subsequently made strong plays to take the game 11-7.

While both teams went neck to neck in the second game, Lin found his groove when the Taiwanese duo took a one-point advantage with the game at 5-4 and started a series of strong smashes to narrowly secure the second game 11-9.

As the match tied at 1-1 before the start of the third game, Lin and Cheng began to play a concerted game that ended in their favor 11-8.

With two games under their belt in the best-of-five match, team Taiwan gave it their all in the fourth game and were on fire as they left Matsushima and Harimoto trailing behind.

Lin and Cheng eventually won the match 3-1 after winning the fourth game 11-5 to advance to the finals of the London event on Sunday, where they will play against world No. 5 team of Wong Chun Ting (黃鎮廷) and Doo Hoi Kem (杜凱琹) from Hong Kong.

The Friday semifinals match between the Taiwan pair and Japanese duo was the second career match up between the teams.

The Taiwanese and Japanese athletes first played against one another at the quarterfinals of the 2025 US Smash early July.

At the United States event, Lin and Cheng beat the Japanese duo 3-2 before being halted in the semifinals by South Korea's Shin Yu-bin and Lim Jong-hoon.

Coincidentally, the Taiwan pair's Sunday Hong Kong opponents also made it only to the semifinals of the July competition after Wong and Doo were defeated by China's Kuai Man (蒯曼) and Lin Shidong (林詩棟).

Taiwan's Lin and Cheng are long-time mixed doubles partners, winning a bronze together in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Most recently, the duo also won a bronze medal at the 2023 Asian Table Tennis Championships in Pyeongchang, South Korea.