Shin Yu-bin

Shin Yu-bin (; born 5 July 2004) is a South Korean table tennis player.

Her father, a former table tennis player, operated a table tennis club, and she naturally started playing the sport around the age of four or five. She showed early promise and was regarded as a table tennis prodigy during her elementary school years, joining the national reserve team. In 2019, at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 16 days, she became the youngest player ever selected for the South Korean national team. Since then, she has established herself as one of the leading figures in South Korean table tennis in the 2020s.

Career

2019 She competed in the 2019 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals in the mixed doubles event with Cho Dae-seong. They were knocked out in the quarterfinals by Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen, 0–3. She also participated in the 2019 Asian Table Tennis Championships in both the women's singles and the mixed doubles, winning against the much higher ranked Cheng I-ching in the round of 32, 3–2, but lost to Feng Tianwei in the round of 16, 0–3 in the women's singles. In the mixed doubles, she competed with Cho Dae-seong. They were knocked out in the quarterfinals by Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, 1–3. Also in 2019, she won the mixed doubles with Cho Dae-seong in the Czech Open, becoming the youngest person to win a mixed doubles title in the ITTF World Tour at 15 years, 50 days. They won against Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito in the finals, 3–2.

2021 Shin was named to the South Korean Olympic team on 4 February 2021. She was 17 at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, making her the youngest ever Korean Olympic table tennis player, breaking a record previously held by Ryu Seung-min.

During the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships held in Houston, United States, Shin Yu-bin sustained a right wrist injury. She competed in the women's doubles event but was forced to withdraw from the women's singles event before her first match due to worsening pain. Upon returning to South Korea, medical examinations revealed tendon damage in her wrist, requiring surgery and a long rehabilitation period. As a result, she missed several months of competition before making a comeback in 2022.

2022 Shin Yubin won her first WTT singles title at the WTT Contender Nova Gorica 2022 after defeating Yang Xiaoxin 4–3 in the final. She also won the mixed doubles title with Lim Jong-hoon, completing a double victory at the tournament.

2023 Shin was selected for the South Korean national Asian Games team in the table tennis event at the 2022 Asian Games, which runs from September 22 to October 2, 2023. Shin Yubin competed in four events and won a medal in each. She won bronze in the women’s singles, bronze in the women’s team event with Jeon Ji-hee, Suh Hyo-won, Lee Eun-hye, and Yang Ha-eun, bronze in the mixed doubles with Lim Jong-hoon, and gold in the women’s doubles with Jeon Ji-hee. The women double final was the inter-Korean match. The pair defeated their North Korean opponents 4–1 in the final, marked South Korea’s first Asian Games gold in table tennis since 2002 - Lee Chul-seung and Ryu Seung-min’s gold in the men’s doubles and Lee Eun-sil and Seok Eun-mi’s gold in the women’s doubles were the country’s last Asiad golds in the sport. .

2024 On July 2, 2024, Shin Yubin entered the world top 10 for the first time, reaching No. 9. Shin Yu-bin competed in the Paris Olympics, reaching the bronze medal match in all three events she participated in. Shin first won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles event with Lim Jong-hoon, then lost to Hina Hayata in the women's singles. Finally, in the women's team event, she teamed up with Jeon Ji-hee and Lee Eun-hye to defeat the German team and secure her second bronze medal.

2025 At the World Table Tennis Championships 2025, Shin with Lim Jonghoon and Ryu Han-na, won bronze medals in the mixed doubles and women’s doubles events, becoming the first Korean female player in 32 years—since Hyun Jung-hwa — to win multiple medals at a single WTTC.

At the end of the year, Shin Yubin and Lim Jonghoon defeated the world No. 1 mixed doubles pairs Lin Shidong/Kuai Man in the semifinals and Wang Chuqin/Sun Yingsha in the final at the WTT Finals Hong Kong, becoming the first Korean mixed doubles pair to achieve this feat.

In 2025, Shin Yubin also made remarkable progress in women’s singles, becoming the first Korean female player to reach the semifinals of a Grand Smash event at China Smash 2025. She was also the first Korean female player to reach the semifinals twice consecutively at the Montpellier and Frankfurt events in the WTT Champions series.

2026 According to the world rankings in week 7 of 2026, Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin officially became the world No. 1 mixed doubles pair.

In April 2026, at the ITTF World Cup Macao 2026, Shin Yubin became the first Korean female player in history to win a medal at the World Cup.

Finals Singles

Women doubles

Mixed doubles