Lim Jong-hoon Reaches WTT Champions Men’s Singles Semifinals, But Fails to Defeat ‘World’s Strongest’ Player Pan Zhendong

Lim Jong-hoon went up to the WTT Champions men’s singles semi-final held in Xinxiang, Hunan Province, China last Friday (14th) and played against ‘the world’s strongest’ Pan Zhen-dong for 1 hour and 53 minutes, but unfortunately lost 3-4 and stayed in third place.

The WTT Champions is a tournament to determine the best singles player, and only high-ranking players in the world compete. It is the series that gives the 3rd highest ranking points in WTT after Grand Smash and Cup Finals. 32 men and 32 players each will compete for a prize pool of $800,000 and 1,000 championship points.

In the round of 16, Lim Jong-hun met Japan’s ‘table tennis genius’ Tomokazu Harimoto (world number 3) and won 3-1 (4-11, 11-8, 11-5, 12-10), and in the quarterfinals, he won She beat Alexis LeBron (#22 in the world) 3-1 (11-6, 13-11, 7-11, 11-8) to advance to the semifinals.

Lim Jong-hoon was the only non-Chinese among the eight players who reached the men’s and women’s semifinals, and everyone’s attention was focused, but he was far short of defeating the world’s strongest player. He was on the verge of giving up the first two games, but he started to see hope by taking the third game 11-5 with ease. Lim Jong-hoon, who showed his concentration until the end and led the game until the 7th game, gave 2 points to Pan Zhendong in a 9-9 situation and unfortunately did not make it to the finals.

However, he showed his potential by performing well against world number 1 Pan Zhendong, and revealed his prospects at the World Championships in May. Lim Jong-hoon reached the quarterfinals at the WTT Champions Budapest 2022 held last year. In this tournament, he reached the semifinals and broke the Korean men’s table tennis champions’ record by himself, and is preparing to rise even higher at the subsequent WTT Champions Macau.

Meanwhile, ‘table tennis prodigy’ Shin Yu-bin confirmed her potential by reaching the quarterfinals in the women’s singles. Shin Yu-bin, who participated in the WTT Champions for the first time, defeated Germany’s Ying Han (ranked 10th in the world), a defensive veteran, 3-1 (13-11, 11-8, 10-12, 12-10) in the round of 16, the second round, and unexpectedly. and advanced to the quarterfinals. But she, Shin Yu-bin, was also not strong enough to cross the walls of her Great Wall. China’s Wang Yidi, world No. 3, was waiting on the way to the semi-finals, and lost 0-3 (3-11, 10-12, 5-11) to miss the semi-finals.

Lee Sang-soo (Samsung Life Insurance), Jang Woo-jin (Army Sports Corps), and Jeon Ji-hee (Mirae Asset Securities) also participated in this competition, but failed to show their skills and were eliminated in the early stages.

With Sun Yingxia and Pan Zhendong winning, both men’s and women’s singles champions returned to the People’s Republic of China. The second place was also taken by the People’s Republic of China, and this time the tournament was concluded with a ‘Chinese feast’.

WTT Champions Macau, the last gateway to check the performance on the international stage before the World Championships, will be held from the 17th to the 23rd.