First Korean player to win the tournament in 4 years
Complete victory in Hong Kong Finals Mixed Finals
Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha win in 6 matches and 7th match.
Prevented a record 30 consecutive wins in international competitions
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Lim Jong-hoon (second from left), a mixed doubles player paired with Shin Yu-bin, the star of Korean table tennis, is receiving and passing the ball in the mixed doubles final match of China’s Wang Chu-qin and Sun Ying-sha at the ‘Hong Kong Finals 2025’, the king of the world table tennis (WTT) held in Hong Kong on the 13th. The team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin, who defeated China to win the championship, enjoyed the joy of becoming the first Korean player to reach the finals of the competition and win the championship since the establishment of the 2021 WTT Finals.
Provided by WTT
The Korean table tennis mixed doubles team of Lim Jong-hoon (Korea Exchange) and Shin Yu-bin (Korean Air) defeated Chinese players and won the championship trophy in the year-ending table tennis king of kings. With this victory, they broke the chain of 6 consecutive losses suffered by Chinese players and also stopped their 30-game winning streak.
The pair of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin won 3-0 (11-9 11-8 11-6) over China’s Wang Chu-qin and Sun Ying-sha in the mixed doubles final of the Hong Kong Finals 2025, a World Table Tennis (WTT) tournament held in Hong Kong on the 13th.
In this competition, only 16 world-class players will participate in the men’s and women’s singles, and only 8 groups will be invited to compete in the mixed doubles. Since the establishment of the WTT Finals in 2021, this is the first time that a Korean player has advanced to the finals of the competition and won the championship.
In particular, the team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin lost all six matches to the group of Wang Chu-qin and Sun Ying-sha, the world’s No. 1 men’s and women’s singles team, but finally won their first victory in their seventh match. The team of Wang Chu-qin and Sun Ying-sha were completely defeated by the team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin, failing to achieve a record of 30 consecutive wins in international competitions, and their undefeated record in international competitions for the past 24 months was also put on hold.
The pair of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin won the bronze medal in the semifinals of last year’s Paris Olympics, bowing to the pair of Wang Chu-qin and Sun Ying-sha, and also suffered a defeat by losing to them in the semi-finals of the Doha World Championships in May this year. In both competitions, the pair of Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha won gold medals. Previously, the team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin gained momentum by defeating China’s Lin Shi-dong and Kuai-man, ranked first in the world, 3-1 in the semifinals.
The team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin, who launched a bold attack from the first game, took the lead in a 9-9 tie with Lim Jong-hoon’s successful attack and Wang Chu-qin’s error. Even after two games, they were ahead 9-4 and allowed to catch up, but Sun Yingsha’s mistake gave them a 2-0 lead. This group was pushed back in the beginning of the third game, but later turned the tide and confirmed the win with Wang Chuqin’s attack breaking away at 10-6. The team of Wang Chu-qin and Sun Ying-sha, with Sun Ying-sha playing with an ankle injury, tried to turn the situation around, but it was not enough to regain the victory that had already been lost.
Above all, Shin Yu-bin’s victory is even more valuable because she achieved it in poor condition after injuring her knee ligament in the mixed team World Cup tournament that ended in Chengdu, China on the 8th. Lim Jong-hoon, who got married on the 30th of last month, postponed his honeymoon to prepare for this competition, so he received the best wedding present. Shin Yu-bin said, “Thanks to the help of Lim Jong-hoon, I was able to win the gold medal with a good performance,” and also prayed for a speedy recovery for Sun Ying-sa, who injured her ankle.
Reporter Lee Je-hoon
2025-12-15 Page 26
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