Lin Yun-ju
Taiwanese table tennis player (born 2001)
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Lin Yun-Ju (Chinese: 林昀儒; pinyin: Lín Yún rú born 17 August 2001) is a Taiwanese table tennis player.[8][9] He is a left-handed player who plays with the shakehand grip.
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Lin in 2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Native name | 林昀儒 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname(s) | The Silent Assassin[1][2] , Little Lin mate (小林同學） | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 17 August 2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)[3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Table tennis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Kinoshita Meister Tokyo (T.League)[4] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Playing style | Left-handed shakehand grip | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Equipment(s) | Butterfly Viscaria Super ALC with Zyre 03 on forehand and Dignics 05 on backhand[5] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest ranking | 5 (3 August 2021)[6] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current ranking | 7 (2 March 2026)[7] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Career
Lin began playing table tennis in third grade.[10] He started competing on the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) senior circuit in 2016.[11] At age 14, he officially became a member of the national team at the 2016 World Team Championships, making him the youngest Taiwanese player to achieve this.[10]
Lin made his debut in the men's singles event at the 2017 World Championships, where he lost in a seven-game battle in the first round to Bastian Steger.[12] He remained a member of the national team and competed alongside Chuang Chih-yuan and Chen Chien-an at the 2018 Asian Games, where they won a bronze medal in the men's team event.[13] That same year, he also took part in the 2018 Youth Olympics, where he and his teammate Su Pei-ling secured a bronze medal in the mixed team event.[14]
2019–2021
In March 2019, Lin won the men's singles title at the ITTF Challenge Plus Oman Open, defeating Mattias Falck in the final.[15] He also secured titles in the men's doubles with Liao Cheng-ting and in the mixed doubles with Cheng I-ching, completing a remarkable triple crown at the event. In the May world rankings, he surpassed Chuang Chih-yuan to become the highest-ranked Taiwanese player in men's singles.[16] Lin reached the final of the Japan Open, where he lost to Xu Xin.[17] He then went on to win two consecutive tournaments: first, the T2 Diamond Malaysia in July,[18] followed by his first ITTF World Tour title at the Czech Open in August, at the age of only 18.[19] In these tournaments, he defeated several top players, including Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, and Timo Boll.[20]
Lin broke into the world's top ten in September 2019.[21] He later reached another T2 Diamond final in Singapore, where he was once again defeated by Xu Xin.[22] He went on to beat Ma Long to win the bronze medal at the Men's World Cup, becoming the first Taiwanese player ever to medal in the event.[23]
After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lin trained in China alongside members of the Chinese national team and other selected foreigners from late 2020 until early 2021.[24] His first international event during this period was the WTT Contender at World Table Tennis' inaugural event, WTT Doha, where he reached the finals after defeating Quadri Aruna in the quarterfinals and Simon Gauzy in the semifinals,[25] before being upset by Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the final.[26] In the WTT Star Contender event, Lin suffered a quarterfinal upset against Ruwen Filus.[27] However, Lin left Doha having secured the fourth seed for the men's singles event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.[28] In April, the ITTF amended the Olympic seeding system, causing Lin to drop to the fifth seed, below Hugo Calderano.[29]
At the Tokyo Olympics, Lin first competed in the mixed doubles event with Cheng I-ching. As the third seed, the pair lost in the semifinals to Japan's Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito but went on to claim the bronze medal by defeating Emmanuel Lebesson and Jia Nan Yuan.[30] In the men's singles event, Lin lost a seven-game semifinal to Fan Zhendong and ultimately placed fourth after falling to Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the bronze-medal match, where he missed four match points.[31][32] In the final table tennis event, the men's team competition, Lin defeated Ovtcharov, but Chinese Taipei was eliminated by Germany 3–2 in the quarterfinals.[33]
At the World Championships following the Olympics, Lin was eliminated in the third round of the men's singles.[34] However, he and Cheng I-ching advanced to the semifinals in the mixed doubles event and claimed Lin's first World Championships medal after losing to the Chinese duo Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha.[35]
2022–2026
In 2022, Lin claimed the men's singles title at the WTT Contender Zagreb, defeating China's Xiang Peng in the final.[36] He also reached the final at the WTT Contender Almaty, where he lost to Germany's Ruwen Filus in a tightly contested seven-game match.[37] In 2023, Lin once again defeating Xiang Peng to win the men's singles title at WTT Contender Almaty.[38] That year, he also secured three medals at the 2023 Asian Championships and added two more medals at the Asian Games, further proving his strength on the international stage.[39][40][41] Lin achieved a major milestone by winning his first WTT Champions title in Frankfurt, with an impressive series of victories over Patrick Franziska, Benedikt Duda, Tomokazu Harimoto, Wang Chuqin, and Ma Long.[42]
At the 2024 World Team Championships, Lin competed as the highest-ranked player on the Chinese Taipei men's team.[43] The team defeated Sweden to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics.[44] In the quarterfinals, they surprised many by sweeping Germany 3–0, but later lost to France in the semifinals.[45][46] With this result, the team matched its best finish in the event, first reached in 2014. Lin went on to compete in three events at the 2024 Summer Olympics, but despite high hopes, he was knocked out in the quarterfinals of all three.[47][48][49] In late 2024, he helped the national team achieve a runner-up finish in the men's team event at the Asian Championships.[50]
He secured a silver medal in men's doubles alongside Kao Cheng-jui at the 2025 World Championships in Doha.[51] However, Lin did not win another singles title throughout 2024 and 2025. In January 2026, Lin ended a 798-day singles title drought by defeating South Korea's Jang Woo-jin in straight games to win the WTT Champions Doha, a victory that re-established his position as one of the premier competitors in the sport.[52][53] Just one month later, at the Singapore Smash, he secured a runner-up finish after having an incredible run.[54]
Personal life
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.[55] Venturing into sports ownership, Lin became a co-owner of the Princeton Revolution in the U.S.-based Major League Table Tennis in November 2024.[56]
Achievements
Major tournaments
| Tournaments | Events | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singles | Men's doubles |
Mixed doubles |
Team | |
| Olympic Games | 4th | — | 3rd | Quarterfinals |
| World Championships | Quarterfinals | 2nd | Semifinals | Semifinals |
| World Cup | 3rd | — | — | Semifinals |
Singles titles
| Year | Tournament | Final opponent | Score | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | ITTF Challenge Plus, Oman Open |  Mattias Falck |
4–2 | [15] |
| T2 Diamond Malaysia |  Fan Zhendong |
4–1 | [57] | |
| ITTF World Tour, Czech Open |  Dimitrij Ovtcharov |
4–1 | [58] | |
| 2022 | WTT Contender Zagreb | Xiang Peng |
4–0 | [59] |
| 2023 | WTT Contender Almaty | Xiang Peng |
4–1 | [60] |
| WTT Champions Frankfurt | Ma Long |
4–1 | [42] | |
| 2026 | WTT Champions Doha |  Jang Woo-jin |
4–0 | [61] |
