Taiwan’s world No. 1 pairing of Lin Yun-ju (???) and Cheng I-ching (???) cruised past Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra of India to advance to the semifinals of the mixed doubles at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Singapore Smash.
Lin and Cheng, who sit at the top of the world table tennis mixed doubles rankings, defeated Gnanasekaran and Batra, ranked 10th in the world, in straight games 11-8, 11-3, 11-6 in 19 minutes and 35 seconds in the quarterfinal game held at Singapore Sports Hub.
The top seeds meet Emmanuel Lebesson and Jia Nan Yuan of France in the semifinals Tuesday.
The Taiwanese Tokyo Olympic medalists were on point from the start pocketing the first two games for the loss of just 11 points. In the third game, Lin and Cheng led 9-6 before winning the next two points to clinch the match.
Cheng told CNA after the match that everything went smoothly and their opponents did not give them too much trouble.
“Our rhythm was very good,” Cheng said, adding that it was better than yesterday.
Lin said they considered themselves familiar with the playing style of their opponents.
Also on the same day, Cheng defeated Bruna Takahashi of Brazil 11-9, 8-11, 11-5, 11-8 in the women’s singles in the round of 32.
Cheng said the match had been challenging but she was able to make adjustments to her game to secure the victory.
“My opponent came in with a good fight,” she said, “For the first few games, I was probably not as active as I should have been and I needed to be more proactive, so in the third and fourth game I tried to be less defensive and that enabled me to take control and pick up the pace of the game.”
Cheng meets Kasumi Ishikawa of Japan in the round of 16.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese paddlers Chuang Chih-yuan (???) and Chen Chien-an (???) edged past Anton Kallberg and Truls Moregard of Sweden 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-1 in the round of 16 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Chuang and Chen face Lim Jonghoon and Jang Woojin of South Korea in the quarterfinals Tuesday.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel