China's Wang Chuqin, Sun Yingsha achieve three-peat in mixed doubles at WTT Singapore Smash

China's Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha clinched their third consecutive mixed doubles title at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Singapore Smash on Friday after beating South Korean duo Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin 3-1. The Chinese team also secured the men's doubles and women's singles titles.  

Wang and Sun took an early lead with scores of 11-7, 11-8 before the third seeds revived their hopes in the third game 11-9. The top seeds made sure to leave no chance in the following game to seal the win with 11-7. 

"Both pairs played excellently, and we are quite familiar with each other. Lim and Shin are among the world's top players in terms of their strength in the singles event and overall capability, so we went all out on the court," said world No. 1 Sun, who suffered a shock exit against teammate Chen Xingtong in the women's singles quarterfinal earlier. 

"Both sides played well today. Of course, Sun and I were fully prepared for the challenges, and managed to have the game under control," said Wang.  

The mixed doubles event made its debut at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, and will be the first of five table tennis events to stage a final at the Paris Games this year. Chinese veterans Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen fell short against Japan's home favorites Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito at the Tokyo Games to finish in second place. 

Wang and Sun, the only Chinese mixed pair registered for the Singapore event, won back-to-back titles in the Houston and Durban World Championships.

Earlier on Friday, Team China set up all-Chinese women's semifinals and the men's doubles final to secure the titles. 

Chen Xingtong beat world No. 1 Sun to set up a semifinal clash against Wang Yidi, who downed teammate Qiang Tianyi. Olympic champion Chen Meng outclassed South Korean teenager Shin Yu-bin in full games to set up the other match with Wang Manyu, who came back from two games down to beat Ito.  

The men's double final will be Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin versus Ma Long and Lin Gaoyuan. The former pair dispatched Sweden's Anton Kallberg and Mattias Falck 3-1, and the latter enjoyed a walkover against South Korea's Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon.  

Meanwhile, Team China's Liang Jingkun and Wang Chuqin will face Lin Yun-ju of Chinese Taipei and French hopeful Felix Lebrun, respectively, in the men's singles semifinals. Chen Meng and Wang Manyu will face Chinese Taipei's Li Yu-jhun and Cheng I-ching in the women's doubles.