Taiwanese table tennis doubles pair Chuang Chih-yuan (???) and Peng Wang-wei (???) had their fine run at WTT Contender Muscat 2022 in Oman come to a halt with a loss in the tournaments final Saturday.

Chuang and Peng were defeated by the Chinese duo of Lin Shidong (???) and Xiang Peng (??) three games to nil at the men’s doubles final, which was held at Sultan Qaboos Sport Complex in Muscat, Oman.

The Taiwanese team, led by the 40-year-old Chuang, also known as the “Godfather of Taiwan table tennis,” fell behind to Lin and Xiang in the opening game 11-7 before rallying back to tie the second game 8-8.

However, Lin and Xiang were able to unleash a series of attacks that allowed them to pocket the second game 11-9 and come to within one game of lifting the championship trophy.

Chuang and Peng fired off a 4-0 run at the start of the third game, before Xiang woke up to pull a 5-0 run themselves to take the lead.

The Taiwanese duo were able to find the equalizer to make the game 5-5, however, the Chinese team switched up their tactics to force errors by Peng by hitting the ball close to his body.

The strategy allowed Lin and Xiang to gain another five points, and hence five match points. From there, Chuang made an error on a return and conceded the game 11-5.

Chuang and Peng began the tournament by advancing from the preliminary round, before going on to defeat India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Harmeet Desai by three games to two in the round of 16 Wednesday.

The Taiwanese pairing then defeated another Indian duo of Manush Utpalbhai Shah and Manav Vikash Thakkar by three games to one in the quarterfinals Thursday before Jakub Dyjas of Poland and Cedric Nuytinck of Belgium forfeited their planned semifinal matchup.

The WTT Contender Muscat 2022, held Feb. 27 to March 5, carried a total purse of US$75,000.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel