LOS ANGELES, July 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin edged the Chinese pair Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha 3-2 to clinch the mixed doubles title at the World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash on Friday, their first in the event in a WTT Grand Smash tournament.
Lim and Shin had claimed the mixed doubles title at last year's WTT Finals after defeating the Olympic champions Wang and Sun in straight games.
This time, Lim and Shin won the opening game 11-9 before Wang and Sun prevailed 11-6, 11-7 in the following two. The top-seeded South Korean pair then showed resilience to come back with consecutive wins 11-7, 11-8 to seal the victory.
Earlier in the day, Sun swept Dina Meshref of Egypt 11-8, 11-3, 11-5 to reach the women's singles quarterfinals, while China's Chen Xingtong and Wang Yidi also secured berths in the last eight.
"Although the score didn't seem that tense, she [Meshref] had an impressive performance not only today, but also throughout the U.S. Smash. For me, no matter what happened, I just fought for each point," said world No. 1 Sun.
In the men's doubles, China's Wen Ruibo and Yuan Licen set up a final clash with their compatriots Lin Shidong and Huang Youzheng, as both pairs seized straight-game wins in the semifinals.
Also on Friday, men's singles second seed Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan was upset by Russia's Vladimir Sidorenko 3-0, while Japan's Hiroto Shinozuka shocked Brazil's Hugo Calderano 3-1 in the round of 16. ■
