South Korea’s women’s table tennis team has reached the semifinals of the team event at the Summer Olympics for the first time in 12 years. The team can now challenge for a medal in the event, which has been dormant since Beijing 2008.
The South Korean women’s table tennis team of Shin Yoo-bin, Lee Eun-hye (Korean Air) and Jeon Jeon-hee (Mirae Asset Securities) defeated Sweden 3-0 in straight sets in the quarterfinals of the women’s team event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Arena 4 in South Paris, France, on Saturday (June 6).
With the win, South Korea’s women’s table tennis team reached the semifinals of the Olympic team event for the first time since London 2012. Their last medal in the event dates back to Beijing 2008. In London, they lost back-to-back matches in the quarterfinals and bronze medal match to settle for fourth place. At Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020 (which will be held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), she was unable to fulfill her medal dreams as she was eliminated early.
Women’s national table tennis team ace Shin Yoo-bin won bronze in the mixed doubles with Lim Jong-hoon, finished fourth in the women’s singles and reached the semifinals of the women’s team event, reaching the quarterfinals in all three events she competed in.
Unlike Shin Yubin, Jeon Jeon-hee and Lee Eun-hye have yet to kiss the first Olympic medal of their careers. In Paris, they have the opportunity to step onto the podium for the first time.
South Korea’s performance against Sweden was one of the best of the day. In the first match, the doubles, “soul partners” Shin Yoo-bin and Jeon Jeon-hee dominated Sweden’s Christina Kaelberg and Philippa Bergand.
Shin and Jeon won silver in the women’s doubles at the Durban 2023 World Championships and are clearly ‘world class’ at the sport. They were unable to match the ‘chemistry’ of Christina Kaelberg and Philippa Bergand, who won the women’s doubles gold medal at last year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou.
Shin Yubin and Jeon Ji-hee easily won the first doubles match with a 3-0 game score. They won the first game 11-2, the second game 11-7, and the third game 11-5. In the second game, they were down 1-5 at the beginning of the match, but they gradually closed the gap and secured a comfortable victory.
The Koreans rode their momentum to sweep the second singles match. Eun Hye Lee won her match against Linda Verström. She got off to a shaky start, down 2-11 in game one, but quickly settled down. She eased to an 11-4 win in game two and then took game three 12-10 after a deuce tiebreak to take full control. After back-to-back deuce wins, the South Koreans took game four in a thrilling 13-11 victory to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
South Korea put the finishing touches on the match in the third singles match. ‘Eldest Sister’ Jeon Ji-hee defeated Christina Kaelberi to secure a spot in the quarterfinals. Like Lee, she started off slow, dropping the first game 8-11, but it didn’t matter. She 카지노사이트 추천 bounced back to take game two 13-11 in a deuce tiebreaker, and then took game three 11-6 to seal the win.
Jin Hee Jin seized the momentum and kissed the Swede goodbye in game four. With the score tied at 5-5, she racked up a series of points to quickly reach 10-5 match point. At 10-7, she added another point to punch her ticket to the semifinals just one hour and 50 minutes into the quarterfinals.
South Korea’s women’s table tennis team avenged the disappointment of having their medal bid halted in the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. South Korea lost to Germany in straight sets with a match score of 2-3. Choi Hyo-joo dropped both singles matches, while Shin Yubin lost to Han Ying in singles with a game score of 1-3.
South Korea got off to a strong start in the women’s team competition, defeating Brazil 3-1 in straight sets in their round of 16 match. Although Brazil is ranked below Korea in overall team strength, they were a force to be reckoned with, boasting world No. 20 singles player Bruna Takahashi.
In the first doubles match, the South Korean pair of Shin Yoo-bin and Jeon Jeon-hee swept Giulia Takahashi and Bruna Aleksandr 3-0 (11-6 11-5 11-8) in 20 minutes. Giulina Takahashi is the younger sister of Bruna Takahashi. The two make up Brazil’s leading women’s doubles team, but they made a strategic change to utilize Bruna Takahashi in the two singles matches.
The Brazilian strategy paid off in the first singles of game two. Bruna Takahashi stunned the Koreans with a 3-2 victory over Eun Hye Lee to take the game.
With the momentum back in their favor, the Brazilians sent Jeon Jeon-hee to face their second ace, Giulia Takahashi, in game three. Jeon took a breath of fresh air as she secured a 3-0 (11-7 11-4 11-2) victory.
Jeon Jeon-hee bounced back from a shock loss to Chinese-Portuguese Hu Yu in the first round of the women’s singles event (Round of 64) in the team competition. She defeated Giulia Zakahashi in just 19 minutes. South Korea then sealed the victory in the fourth singles match when Lee Eun-hye took out Bruna Alexandre.
South Korea has now beaten Brazil and Sweden to reach the women’s table tennis semifinals and will play at least the bronze medal match. Their quarterfinal opponents will be Chinese Taipei, who will face Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.
Korean women’s table tennis has struggled to break through the ‘Great Wall’ in Paris. Shin Yoo-bin and Lim Jong-hoon lost to China’s Wang Qin-chu and Sun Ying-sa in the mixed doubles and Shin Yoo-bin lost to China’s Chen Meng in the women’s singles. It will be interesting to see if they can break the Chinese jinx.
On the same day, the men’s team also swept their Round of 16 match against Croatia with a 3-0 match score before the women’s team’s match against Sweden.
The men’s team of Jang Woo-jin (sponsored by SEA), Lim Jong-hoon (Korea Exchange), and Cho Dae-sung (Samsung Life Insurance) won the first doubles match against Croatia, as well as the second and third singles matches.
South Korea’s dominant performance on the day made it easier than expected, as they only dropped one game (set) to Croatia in each match. In fact, it was the men’s team event that was the most unlucky for South Korea when the draw was made just before the opening ceremony in Paris. With a quarterfinal matchup against China, their path to a medal was made much more difficult. There were also concerns about facing Croatia in the first round.
The quarterfinal matchup with China was an afterthought as they faced a tricky team, but in reality, they handled Croatia with ease. South Korea will face China at 5 a.m. on July 7 for a spot in the semifinals. China swept India in the Round of 16 with a 3-0 match score. After a 3-0 win over Harmeet Desai-Manav Takkar in doubles in the first game, with Ma Rong, the Messi of table tennis, teaming up with world No. 1 Wang Chuqin, China’s men’s singles gold medalist Pan Zhenndong dropping the first game to Sarath Achanta in the second game before eventually winning the match 3-1.
In addition to Korea-China, the quarterfinals of the men’s team event also featured Japan-Taiwan, Sweden-Germany, and Brazil-France. If South Korea defeats China, they will play the winner of Brazil-France for a spot in the final. If they lose, they are eliminated immediately.