Korean Yubin eager to defend title at 2024 WTT Contender Lagos

Nineteen-year-old South Korean Shin Yubin did not hesitate to express her desire to return to Lagos to defend the title she won in 2023.

The teenage sensation cannot wait to compete again at the 2024 WTT Contender Lagos from 19 to 23 June at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium.

The three-time WTT Contender Champion was the only player who halted the Chinese dominance in Lagos last year when she beat Chinese star Li Yake 4-2 in the women’s singles final, while her partnership with compatriot Jeon Jihee ensured she left Nigeria with two titles after defeating the Chinese duo of Liu Weishan and Fan Siqi 3-1 in the women’s doubles finals for Korea to dominate the women’s events.

The world number 7 admitted that she enjoyed her stay in Lagos, and she is hoping to have such an experience again this year.

“I’m happy to be in Nigeria. People are very happy and dancing, and people support table tennis in Nigeria. I played very well in Nigeria,” the Korean star said after her triumph in 2023.

At 17 in 2021, Yubin was named on the South Korean Olympic team to the rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, making her the youngest-ever Korean Olympic table tennis player, breaking a record previously held by Ryu Seung-min.

But Yubin will have to fend off competition from top players from India, Nigeria, and a host of others if she hopes to retain her title in Lagos.

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Meanwhile, the organisers of the first WTT Series in Sub-Saharan Africa have promised to stage another colourful tournament with the quality of players coming to Lagos later this month for the $80,000 prize money tournament.

Apart from table tennis, visitors coming to Lagos will enjoy the hospitality and support of the Lagos fans, who have been described as some of the most exciting table tennis spectators in the world, with the show of tremendous support the players enjoy in Lagos.