Table Tennis: Chinese teenager Lin stuns Ovtcharov to claim WTT Contender Amman title

China’s Lin Shidong lifted his first-ever men’s singles trophy at a World Table Tennis (WTT) Series event, upsetting Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the WTT Contender Amman, here on Sunday.

Lin defeated the tournament’s second seed Ovtcharov in straight sets 11-7, 11-3, 13-11, 11-8 in the final.

The 17-year-old Chinese thus stood atop the podium for the second time at the tournament, after he had paired up with Kuai Man to win the mixed doubles on Saturday with an 11-3, 11-7, 11-8 victory over Romanian duo Ovidiu Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs, bringing home their fifth straight WTT title in the category coming into 2023.

Liu Yebo and Xu Yingbin pocketed the men’s doubles title with a full-sets win over top-ranked Yukiya Uda and Shunsuke Togami of Japan, a Xinhua report said.

The women’s singles title went to top seed Mima Ito of Japan, after her second-seeded opponent Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong, China was forced to withdraw from the final due to injury.

Doo chose to pull out of title contention with only four points played after she appeared to be affected by an elbow injury.

Cheng I-ching and Li Yu-jhun of Chinese Taipei emerged victorious in the women’s doubles after edging past French pair Camille Lutz and Prithika Pavade in full sets.

-IANS

“Get more sports news, cricket news, and football updates, log on to sportsdigest.in. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel.”