Korean women’s table tennis has reached its second consecutive final at the Pyeongchang Asian Table Tennis Championships.
The Korean women’s table tennis team, led by head coach Oh Kwang-heon, defeated Hong Kong 3-0 in the semifinals of the 26th ITTF-ATTU Pyeongchang Asian Table Tennis Championships 2023 at the Pyeongchang Dome in Gangwon Province on Friday to reach the final. It is the second consecutive final for the team, which also won in Doha, Qatar, in 2021.메이저놀이터
The Koreans had a golden opportunity when Hong Kong’s top player Du Hoi Kem (World No. 32) withdrew with a wrist injury just before the match. Playing with a must-win mentality at home, “youngest top player” Shin Yoo-bin (Korean Air, No. 9), “defensive ace” Seo Hyo-won (Korea Horse Racing Association, No. 61) and “left-handed ace” Jeon Ji-hee (Mirae Asset Securities, No. 33) dominated Hong Kong’s 19-year-old prodigy Li Hoi-man Karen (No. 178), Zhu Cheng-ju (No. 55) and veteran Li Ho-ching (No. 108).
Oh exploited Hong Kong’s weakness in the defensive endgame. In game one, Seo Hyo-won defeated Hoi Man Karen 3-0. Game 2 was a matchup of aces. Shin Yubin swept past Zhu Chengzhu 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-7). Jeon Jeon-hee then swept Li Ho-ching 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 14-12) to take the game 3-0.
After a surprisingly tough quarterfinal match against Thailand the day before, Korea flew out of the gate against their stronger opponents, Hong Kong. They played a flawless game, not dropping a set, and sealed the match in an hour and a half. They will face ‘Great Wall’ China in the final at 7 p.m. today. “We struggled a bit in the previous match, so we came out with a little more determination. It’s good that it went as well as we thought it would,” they said. “We are happy to play the last game of the team competition as the final game,” they said, adding, “We will do our best to win or lose against China and have no regrets.”
China, who did not compete at the 2021 Doha Games due to the coronavirus, defeated defending champions Japan in the semifinals earlier in the day. Sun Yingxia (1st), Chen Meng (2nd) and Chen Xingtong (3rd) defeated Hina Hayata (7th), Miu Hirano (14th) and Mima Ito (8th) 3-0. Speaking ahead of the final, Oh Kwang-heon, head coach of the Korean women’s team, said, “It’s good to be playing in Korea, but it can also be more stressful. I would like to thank the players for coping well.” “We were already preparing for China before the Hong Kong game. It will be a tough match against the best in the world, but we will not back down,” he said. “If I had to say a watchword, it would be ‘attack’. They can’t be beaten defensively, so I’m asking the players to be aggressive,” she said.
South Korean women’s table tennis has only won the Asian Championships twice before, in 1988 and 1990, during the reign of “Table Tennis Queen” Hyun Jeong-hwa (General Manager of the Korean Horse Racing Association). After reaching the final for the second time in a row, the women’s team will play for the trophy on Friday at 7 p.m. against the “strongest” China.