FULL MATCH | Wang Chuqin vs Lin Yun-Ju | SEMI-FINAL | Asian Cup 2025

Let's give a round of applause! Before the game starts, please check whether the flashing lights have been turned off. Please remain quiet while the players are preparing for the game. Thank you. First game. Lin Tusei. Lan Hong. Here we go then. Three semifinals in the books across the men and women's draw. This is the last of them. Good start from the favourite. What a swashbuckling start. One ranked number two in the world. Picked up the top ranking spot in the middle of 2023. And has since dropped to place. Lin pulling back a couple of points. He'd been ranked as high as five previously. That was in 2021. Number 11 in the world now. Fourth in the singles event in the Olympic Games. Crom's medal in the mixed doubles. Wang Chuqin imposing his will here early on. Youth Olympic Games in 2018 against Komagatsu Harimoto. Who's competing here this week. Good effort to spread the ball around the table from Lin but couldn't execute. And he arrives at a juncture in this opening game where he must put points on the table. Does so on the first of his two serves. Let's see if he can close the gap to two. That may be the nail in the first game coffin. Two points needed, two serves to come for Wang Chuqin. Pushes that one over the line though. Staved off a couple of critical points Lin there. Now two serves of his own to come. Two behind. Needs both of these really. Gets the first on a wild forehand from this time stroke from Wang Chuqin. Done a great job in reeling this back. He's got to face two serves from Wang. Picks off the first of them. Gives himself game point. Turns away with fist clenched. Wang's serve. Less than early turn up for the books. Well it's about this time that Wang Chuqin might start to be a little concerned. Big swing and a miss there. Two love down in the second game having lost the first. Fell over with his enthusiasm to bury that forehand drive. The lefty managed to execute. What a start for the 23-year-old. Giving early indications that that first game was not just a flash in the pan. Two up, two serves of his own to come. Didn't look in full control of that though. Shakes his head ruefully. Wang keeping it tight. Still in charge. With a little good fortune. Came to the sport quite late at the age of 14. Took him barely a couple of years to play for the national team at the World Team Championships though. The youngest Taiwanese player ever to do so. Wang Chuqin brings this one back to six all. The gold medalist in mixed doubles with Sun Yingxia who's already in the women's final. Oh leaned into that one. It didn't look pretty I must say. Lin is giving the world number two all of the trouble that he can handle here. Lin firing that back but not getting any downward moving or at least not sufficient downward movement. Double foot stamp from Lin. Once again he couldn't bring that down in time. Dropped over the apex right over it. Eight all in the second game. Two serves to come from Wang Chuqin. Leaning to his right from the waist. Left handed drive down the line towards the apex. Textbook stuff. Beautiful shape to it. Very effective. One serve to come. He gets this. At the game point. Tied at nine. Lin Yunju. Two serves to come. Two points for a two nothing lead. Just visibly spanked away on the backhand. Searching out and destroying that apex. Game point one. One one. So back to all square after two games. And an exhilarating rapid fire opening rally in the third. Could make a good case for both having the bit between their teeth. Thinking that perhaps they've got the upper hand. Three. Gunning for glory these two. But there's also the small matter of 60,000 US dollars to go to the eventual winner. 500 ranking points also on offer for whoever picks up the trophy. Will that be a pivotal moment? Look at the movement from well above the head. Slamming that ball down. One serve to come from Lin. Trails 4-5 in the third game. Tough to separate these two. Oh. Fist raised in the air for a prolonged period of time. That's what coach thinks about it. Can't be a big margin two points but it feels like a bit of a breakthrough. Although two serves to come. Had to scoot across to his right hand side to give him enough room to get that forehand away. But really did move sharply, didn't he? Very agile player. And he has an 8-6 advantage now. Two serves to come if he can keep hold of the ball. Game point to split these two. Waikukin take the two game. Do that. Not for the first time Wang turns away with that fist in the air for a prolonged period of time. Came right off the very edge. The edge of the surface I mean. Completely legal landing but there was no more space for that ping-pong ball. Lin Yun-Ju trails 1-2 in games and 1-4 here in the fourth. No surprise then that he took a timeout just now. An eye-opener for everyone for him to take the first game 11-9. Down in the second game by the same score. Wang Chu-Chin starting to come back into his own by winning the third 11-6. And now here he is with a sizable margin in the fourth. Absolutely needs these two service points. And the fact that he doesn't get the first of them tells you that this fourth game is really very likely going Wang Chu-Chin's way. The Shenzhen Universiade Center Gymnasium packed full of fans looking for an all China men's final. That's exactly what they're going to get in the women's final. Wang Chu-Chin. 10-3 up. And takes a 3-1 lead. Can Wang Chu-Chin take this all the way home now 3-1 up with the grand final beckoning or can Lin Yun-Ju. Chinese Taipei pull himself back into contention here. There's that wave fifth again. And the audience here dancing to his tune. Down the line. By reaction more than design I fancy. I think he was trying for it wasn't he? Lent into it. His opponent a long way from getting anywhere. 5-3. As contact was made so trying to anticipate that didn't work out at all well. Two serves to come from Wang at 5-all. 5-6. 7-5. Incredible resilience from Lin here. 7-5 two serves to come. And he's put himself in touching distance here of pulling back another game. Just when you thought Wang had all the momentum to take this home. Two points needed. And the next two points will come on Wang's serve. Pulls one back. Crowd love it. But Wang knows there's still quite a way to go. Oh it's exhilarating stuff from Lin. Now he has game point and two serves of his own to come. Wang Ji Jin. Slamming the first of the four doors that he needs to close. Bit of an ambitious. Really wide. He's looking at a really short angle. 8-6. As a left-hander could he have taken that better perhaps with his forehand? Worth taking table tennis. And Lin survives to fight another day. But obviously both men deserve credit for the quality of the matchup. Lin Yun-Ju has really sparkled here. Let's not forget though he's a game down. For all his heroics he continues to live on a knife edge. Because Wang only needs one game to close everything down. The clenched fist and a yell to the crowd. He will be backing him all the way here. Up the pace. Flick that backhand. Down the channel. Couldn't absorb the power. Is there a look of resignation about that young face? Four down. And Wang has two serves to come. Four becomes five. No comfortable in that electric exchange. But Lin was rooted to the spot. Dragging his opponent side to side. And eventually. Garnered the point. It's only one among the six they've played. And Wang has a huge advantage here. Two serves to come. Forming. Five to two five. Job done. Oh that's an unbelievable shot. On the return of curve. The left hander. Driving that ball straight down to the apex. On the opposite side of the table from where the serve came. Utterly clinical. Agility. Athleticism. On the far side of the table. Lin doing his best to keep the world number two honest. A bit of an anti-climatic finish to that spectacular rally. Wang Zhijun is two points away from a berth in the final. Six match points for the world number two. To join Liang Jingkun. In the grand final of the 2025 Asian Cup. It was a right royal battle wasn't it.