Lin Yun-Ju (Chinese: 林昀儒; pinyin: Lín Yún rú born 17 August 2001) is a Taiwanese table tennis player.[6][7] He is a left-handed player who plays with the shakehand grip.

Lin Yun-Ju
Personal information
Native name林昀儒
Nickname(s)The Silent Assassin[1][2] , Little Lin Classmate (小林同學)
Born (2001-08-17) 17 August 2001 (age 23)
Yuanshan, Taiwan
Height1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)[3]
Table tennis career
Playing styleLeft-handed shakehand grip
Equipment(s)Butterfly Lin Yun-Ju SZLC with tenergy 05 hard on forehand and dignics 05 on backhand
Highest ranking5 (3 August 2021)[4]
Current ranking11 (8 October 2024)
ClubKinoshita Meister Tokyo (T.League)[5]
Medal record
Men's table tennis
Representing  Chinese Taipei
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 2020 Tokyo Mixed doubles
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2021 Houston Mixed doubles
Bronze medal – third place 2024 Busan Team
World Cup
Bronze medal – third place 2019 Tokyo Team
Bronze medal – third place 2019 Chengdu Singles
Asian Games
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Jakarta Team
Bronze medal – third place 2022 Hangzhou Doubles
Bronze medal – third place 2022 Hangzhou Team
Asian Championships
Silver medal – second place 2023 Pyeongchang Team
Silver medal – second place 2024 Astana Team
Bronze medal – third place 2023 Pyeongchang Singles
Bronze medal – third place 2023 Pyeongchang Mixed doubles
Youth Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Buenos Aires Mixed team

Personal life

edit

Lin was born in Yuanshan, Yilan County, Taiwan. He graduated from Taipei Municipal Nei-Hu Vocational High School and is currently studying at Fu Jen Catholic University.[8]

Career

edit

Lin started playing table tennis as a third grader.[9] At age 14, he officially became a member of the national team at the 2016 World Team Championships, the youngest Taiwanese player to do so.

2019

edit

Lin started competing in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) senior circuit in 2016.[10] He won two major tournaments in a row in 2019, first the T2 Diamond Malaysia in July,[11] followed in August by his first ITTF World Tour title, the Czech Open at the age of only 18.[12] In these tournaments, he had beaten some of the top players, including Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Timo Boll.[13]

2021

edit

Lin trained in China along with members of the Chinese national team and other selected foreigners from late 2020 until early 2021.[14] His first international event was WTT Contender at World Table Tennis' inaugural event WTT Doha, where he reached the finals after defeating Quadri Aruna in the quarter-finals and Simon Gauzy in the semi-finals[15] before being upset by Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the finals.[16] In the WTT Star Contender event, Lin suffered a quarter-final upset against Ruwen Filus.[17] However, Lin walked out of Doha with control of the fourth seed for the men's singles event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.[18] In April, ITTF amended the Olympic seeding system so that Lin fell back to the fifth seed below Hugo Calderano.[19]

Lin placed fourth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after losing to Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the bronze-medal match.[20] Lin defeated Ovtcharov in the team event later, but Taiwan ultimately fell to Germany 3–2 in the quarter-finals.[21]

2023

edit

Lin participated in WTT Frankfurt, and beat Ma Long in the finals, thus winning a WTT Champions title, and stopping Ma Long from getting his first WTT Champions title.

2024

edit

Lin played in the team world championships in 2024. The Chinese Taipei team performed better than expected. In the quarterfinals, they managed to surprise Germany, sweeping them 3-0. But after that, they fell short to France and lost. With this result, Chinese Taipei has qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics as a team.

Achievements

edit

Major tournaments

edit
Best results in majors (Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup)
Tournaments Events
Singles Men's
doubles
Mixed
doubles
Team
Olympic Games 4th 3rd Quarterfinals
World Championships Last 16 Last 16 Semifinals Semifinals
World Cup 3rd Semifinals

Singles titles

edit
Year Tournament Final opponent Score Ref
2019 ITTF Challenge Plus, Oman Open   Mattias Falck 4–2 [22]
T2 Diamond Malaysia   Fan Zhendong 4–1 [23]
ITTF World Tour, Czech Open   Dimitrij Ovtcharov 4–1 [24]
2022 WTT Contender Zagreb   Xiang Peng 4–0 [25]
2023 WTT Contender Almaty   Xiang Peng 4–1 [26]
WTT Champions Frankfurt   Ma Long 4–1 [27]

References

edit
  1. ^ "Final Day: 2019 Chengdu Airlines Men's World Cup ( the silent assassin Lin Yun-Ju)". ITTF. 3 December 2019.
  2. ^ "Who Will Rule in Seamaster T2 Diamond 2019 Singapore? ( the silent assassin Lin Yun-Ju)". T2 Diamond Table Tennis League.
  3. ^ "リン ユンジュ Lin Yun-Ju". tleague.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  4. ^ "Ranking History". results.ittf.link. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  5. ^ "Lin Yun Ju". tleague.jp. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  6. ^ Table Tennis LIN Yun Ju – Tokyo 2020 Olympics Archived 30 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  7. ^ "Is Lin Yun-Ju the real deal?". International Table Tennis Federation. 24 July 2019.
  8. ^ "賀!!本校體碩二鄭怡靜、體大一林昀儒同學桌球混雙取得2020東京奧運門票". Fu Jen Catholic University (in Chinese). 13 December 2019.
  9. ^ Su, Lynn (November 2021). "Table Tennis Prodigy Lin Yun-ju Lets His Paddle Do the Talking". Taiwan Panorama. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
  10. ^ "Player profile". ittf.com. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  11. ^ Marshall, Ian (21 July 2019). "T2 Diamond: Lin Yun-Ju and Zhu Yuling win in Malaysia". International Table Tennis Federation.
  12. ^ "Taiwan table tennis phenom Lin Yun-ju wins Czech Open". Taiwan Today. 28 August 2019.
  13. ^ Chia, Nicole (20 November 2019). "Table tennis: Teen prodigy Lin Yun-ju lets his bat do the talking". The Straits Times.
  14. ^ "WTT Doha 2021 Preview Part 3: Women's Singles seeds 5 To 8". edgesandnets.com. 14 February 2021. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  15. ^ "Lin Yun-Ju Staves Off Quadri Aruna Comeback On Path To WTT Contender Finals". edgesandnets.com. 5 March 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  16. ^ "How Dimitrij Ovtcharov Solved The Lin Yun-Ju Problem at WTT Doha". edgesandnets.com. 25 March 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  17. ^ "6 Ruwen Filus Shots To Watch Out For in the WTT Doha Finals". edgesandnets.com. 12 March 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  18. ^ "Feng Tianwei Was The Biggest Winner at WTT Doha – Edges and Nets". edgesandnets.com. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  19. ^ "World Table Tennis News Roundup – 04/19/21 – Edges and Nets". edgesandnets.com. 19 April 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  20. ^ "Ma Long Defeats Fan Zhendong to Win Olympic Gold". edgesandnets.com. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  21. ^ "Olympic Table Tennis Team Quarterfinal Round-Up". edgesandnets.com. 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  22. ^ "Oman Highlights Final Day: talent shines through". ittf.com. 24 March 2019. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  23. ^ "T2 Diamond Malaysia". t2diamond.com. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  24. ^ "2019 ITTF World Tour, Czech Open". ittf.com. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  25. ^ "WTT Contender Zagreb 2022". worldtabletennis.com. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  26. ^ "WTT Contender Almaty 2023". worldtabletennis.com. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  27. ^ "WTT Champions Frankfurt 2023". worldtabletennis.com. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
edit