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Side-by-side men's and women's doubles finals with a chance to win two titles

Shin Yubin and Lim Jong-hoon during their match at the World Championships in May.

Korean table tennis' leading mixed doubles duo, Shin Yoo-bin (Korean Air) and Lim Jong-hoon (Korea Exchange), ranked fourth, have won their first international title in nine months.

The duo defeated Maria Xiao-Alvaro Robles (8th-ranked Spain) 3-1 (11-9 12-10 8-11 11-4) in the mixed doubles final on the seventh day of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender Rio de Janeiro 2023 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday (Nov. 12).

With this victory, Shin and Lim lifted their first international mixed doubles title in nine months after winning the Contender Nova Gorica in November last year.

Prior to this year, the pair had reached three finals on the WTT stage, but had to settle for runner-up finishes in all of them.

They lost to the Chinese pair at the Contender Doha in March and the Star Contender Bangkok in April, and then lost to the Chinese Taipei pair at the Contender Tunis in August.

The pairing of Shin Yoo-bin and Lim Jong-hoon is one that Korean Table Tennis has strategically cultivated for a medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

However, at the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships in May, Shin Yubin-Jeon Jeon Hee (Mirae Asset Securities) won a silver medal in the women's doubles and Shin Yubin-Lim Jong-hoon reached the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles, so the duo fell out of favor with fans.

This time around, Shin will be paired with Jeon Jeon-hee (No. 1) in the Women's Doubles event and will be looking to make it a double.

Shin Yubin won two titles at the last Lima Contender.

The team of Shin Yubin and Jeon Jeon-hee will face the 40th-ranked team of Choi Hyo-joo (Korea Horse Society) and Kim Na-young (POSCO International) in the final.

The match is scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. KST on Thursday.

Shin Yubin and Jeon Jeon-hee previously won the Contender Lima, defeating Choi Hyo-joo and Kim Na-young.

Lim Jong-hoon will also be looking to make it two in a row in the men's doubles, where he is paired with Ahn Jae-hyun (Korea Exchange), ranked 22nd.

Their final opponents will be Lee Sang-soo and Cho Dae-sung (5th-ranked Samsung Life).

Meanwhile, no Korean players have reached the finals in the men's or women's singles.

In women's singles, Lee Eun-hye (71st-Korean Air) and Kim Na-young (76th) are the highest-ranked Korean players to reach the quarterfinals, while Cho Seung-min (38th-Samsung Life) and Jang Woo-jin (8th-Mirae Asset Securities) were both eliminated in the semifinals.

Shin Yubin did not compete in singles at the tournament.

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