Taiwanese table tennis ace Lin Yun-ju on Wednesday handily downed Sweden’s Jon Persson 4-0 to advance to the round-of-32 at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Houston, Texas.
World No. 6 Lin, who had a bye to automatically advance to the second round, defeated the 35-year-old Swede 11-5, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Lin was yesterday to play South Korea’s Lim Jong-hoon.
Compatriot and fellow Olympic veteran Chuang Chih-yuan crashed out after losing to Sweden’s Truls Moregard. Moregard, who is more than half Chuang’s age at 19, downed the 40-year-old world No. 25 4-3 in a competitive seven games of 10-12, 12-10, 11-5, 11-7, 3-11, 3-11, 11-8.
Photo: AP
In the women’s singles, world No. 8 Cheng I-ching beat England’s Tin-Tin Ho 4-0 to advance to the round-of-32, where Cheng was yesterday to play Amy Wang of the US.
Taiwan’s Liu Hsing-yin and Chen Szu-yu also advanced after beating world No. 33 Elizabeta Samara 4-0 and Hong Kong’s Lee Ho Ching 4-3 respectively.
Cheng Hsien-tzu and Li Yu-jhun crashed out after losing to Ukraine’s Margaryta Pesotska and Singapore’s Feng Tianwei respectively.
Photo: Erik Williams-USA TODAY
In the men’s doubles, Feng Yi-hsin and Huang Yan-cheng were yesterday to play fellow Taiwanese Chen Chien-an and Chuang Chih-yuan after Feng and Huang beat Puerto Rico’s Daniel Gonzalez and Brian Afanador 3-0.
The world No. 8 duo of Chen Chien-an and Chuang earned a bye through the first round.
In the women’s doubles, the world No. 39 pairing of Cheng Hsien-tzu and Liu along with the duo of Chen Szu-yu and Li both earned a bye to advance to yesterday’s round, when they were to play Luxembourg’s Sarah De Nutte and Xia Lian Ni, and Japan’s Mima Ito and Hina Hayata respectively.
In the mixed doubles, the world No. 2 Taiwanese duo of Cheng I-ching and Lin, who won Taiwan a silver medal at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, were yesterday to play the Swedish pairing of Moregard and Christina Kallberg.
The world No. 58 Taiwanese duo of Chen Szu-yu and Chen Chien-an, who on Tuesday devastated Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut and Padasak Tanviriyavechakul 3-0, were yesterday to face off against South Korea’s world No. 14 pairing of Jang Woo-jin and Jeon Ji-hee.
Although Shohei Ohtani’s first trip to the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series is a global sports event, it is particularly big in Japan. Fans from Ohtani’s home nation bought more World Series tickets for the first two games than from anywhere outside North America, ticket broker StubHub said. Dodger Stadium was packed to the rafters on Friday night for the start of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ showdown with the New York Yankees. “Ohtani’s first season with the Dodgers drew big international appeal, especially from his home country of Japan,” StubHub spokesperson Adam Budelli said. “At the beginning of the season, buyers from
The Major League Baseball World Series trophy is headed to Los Angeles, but the party is extending all the way to Japan. People milled around local train stations yesterday morning in Tokyo as newspaper extras were ready to roll off the presses, proclaiming Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as world champions along with their Dodgers teammates after a stirring Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees. The 30-year-old is a national hero in Japan whose face adorns billboards and TV adverts all over the country. Ohtani this year became the first player in history to hit 50 home runs and
STAR IN DOUBT: After partially dislocating his shoulder in a feetfirst slide into second base, the status of Japanese slugger Ohtani is uncertain for Game 3 as he undergoes tests Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Saturday walked back to his dugout and made the slightest tip of his cap to cheering fans. He left Japan for moments like this, an opportunity to put the Los Angeles Dodgers in control of the World Series. Yamamoto allowed one hit over 6-1/3 innings and Freddie Freeman homered for the second straight night as Los Angeles beat the New York Yankees 4-2 for a 2-0 Series lead. However, the Dodgers head to New York uncertain whether Shohei Ohtani can play after their biggest star partially dislocated his left shoulder on a slide at second base. “We’re going to get
Three-time reigning world champion Kaori Sakamoto on Saturday led a Japanese podium sweep at Skate Canada, locking up a second straight Canadian women’s title despite two falls in her free skate. Sakamoto, who led 19-year-old American Alysa Liu after the short program, looked a little tight during her jazzy free skate, falling on a Salchow jump and again on a triple flip while fighting to hang on to a few other moves. Her second-best free skate score of 126.24 was enough for gold in the second Grand Prix event of the season in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She finished with 201.21 points, well ahead
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