Lim Jong-hoon (26, Korea Exchange메이저사이트, 13th in the world ranking) became the first Korean player to reach the semifinals of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions. Champions is the top level event among the four WTT series (Champions, Star Condenser, Contender, and Feeder).
Lim Jong-hoon defeated Alexis Lebrun (20, France, 22nd) 3-1 (11-6, 13-11, 7-11, 11-8) in the quarterfinals of the men’s singles tournament held in Xinxiang, Henan Province, China on the 13th. reached the semifinals. With this victory, Lim Jong-hoon broke the record for the best performance of a Korean player in this tournament, which he set when he advanced to the quarterfinals in the first tournament in July last year.
Lim Jong-hoon said, “I was nervous when I heard that Lebrun was a player who recently caused a sensation in France. Lebrun is a player who has won the top four times in his country’s championships over the past three years, two singles and one men’s and mixed doubles.
Joo Se-hyeok (43), coach of the Korean men’s table tennis team, said, “Jong-hoon often plays defensively when it comes to deuce and then loses. He said (in the second set, when he was close to deuce), his advice to ‘just push through even if you lose a set’ seems to have worked well.”
Lim Jong-hoon, who raised his confidence by winning 3-1 (4-11, 11-8, 11-5, 12-10) over Tomokazu Harimoto (20, Japan, 3rd place) in the round of 16 of the tournament on the 11th, was in a complete battle. (27, China, 1st place) and Lin Shidong (18, China, 15th place) will play the semifinals on the 14th with the winner of the quarterfinals.
Shin Yu-bin (19, Korean Air, 34th), who participated in the Champions for the first time, also played the women’s singles quarterfinal against Wang Yi-di (27, China, 3rd) that day, but lost 0-3 (3-11, 10-12, 5- 11) was defeated. Shin Yu-bin is the first Korean female player to advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.