Table tennis player Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) achieved a new milestone in his pro career Sunday in Germany by lifting his first-ever World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions trophy.
The 22-year-old Taiwanese upset 35-year-old Ma Long (馬龍), widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, 4-1 in the men's singles final of the WTT Champions Frankfurt 2023.
Coming into the tourney as the eighth seed, the world No. 12 Lin had a wild run before Sunday's match as he dispatched fourth-seeded Tomolazu Harimoto of Japan in the quarterfinals and second-seeded Wang Chuqin (王楚欽) of China in the semifinals.
Lin had fallen four straight times to the world No. 2 Wang before winning on Nov. 4.
In the nearly one-hour final at Infinity Arena, the Taiwanese Silent Assassin lost the first game to Ma 11-7 but bounced back to win the next game by the same score.
The two then went to deuce (10-10) in the next three games, but Lin showed the most poise and prevailed 13-11, 12-10, 12-10 to take the title.
"I think I had a good mindset because Ma Long is a super, super strong opponent. I played pretty well in the last four games and executed the tactics without hesitation," Lin was quoted as saying on the WTT official website.
Lin said he never thought he would win the Frankfurt title in his "wildest dreams," but noted that he took a different approach to the tourney that ended up paying dividends.
"I tried out different tactics in this event whoever I met and it worked out. So I will keep that going."
WTT Champions events are among the top events in professional table tennis and open to only the world's best 30 men and women and two wild cards, with a maximum of four players per member association.
Players compete for 1000 ITTF table tennis world ranking points, according to the WTT.
The tournament victory was Lin's second of the year, after winning the WTT Contender Almaty 2023 in Kazakhstan in early September.
The loss by the world No. 3 Ma, who is the only male tennis table player with two Olympic singles golds, extended his international title drought to 828 days, dating back to the Tokyo Olympic Games, according to the WTT.
