Hong Kong table tennis star Wong Chun-ting credited his wife with helping to “build a bridge” with mixed doubles partner Doo Hoi-kem after years of poor communication in the beginning.

The duo, who are Hong Kong’s most iconic table tennis mixed doubles pair, have won four world bronze medals, finished fourth at the 2024 Paris Olympics and claimed titles at the WTT Champions Doha and WTT Contender Taiyuan events in 2026.

Married since 2022 and now father to a three-year-old daughter and a newborn son, Wong revealed in Wednesday’s World Table Tennis podcast that he and Doo were “not really familiar” with each other for the first eight years of their 13-year partnership.

“With Doo, the first eight years were indeed not close, until I had been with my wife for a while,” Wong said.

“When she came to Hong Kong or when we went back to the mainland for competitions, she would come to the venue to watch. Gradually, she and Doo started communicating more, and it gradually pulled me in.”

Wong said his wife Stella Peng Yingshan helped him improve communication and also performance with Doo.