Women’s singles Kim Ga-eun. Photo courtesy of Korea Badminton Association
[스포츠조선 최만식 기자] Badminton women’s singles singles Kim Ga-eun (24, Samsung Life Insurance) produced a surprise at the Korea Open.
Ga-eun Kim defeated strong candidate Chen Yupei (China) 2-0 (21-17, 21-19) in the women’s singles round of 16 at the ‘2022 Korea Open Badminton Championships’ held at the Palma Indoor Gymnasium in Suncheon-si, Jeollanam-do on the 7th.
This is the biggest surprise of this tournament. In fact, no one expected that Kim Ga-eun, who is ranked 20th in the world, would defeat Chen Yupei, who is third in the world and gold medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Chen Yupei was also the first candidate to compete after receiving the No. 1 seed in this tournament, and was the ‘natural enemy’ who had defeated Gaeun Kim in 4 matches before.
Ga-eun Kim is going to face Jinwei Koh (Malaysia), ranked 128th in the world, in the quarterfinals, so she is optimistic that she will enter the semifinals.
Ahn Se-young (20, Samsung Life Insurance), the women’s singles ace, also ran towards her first Korean Open championship. Ahn Se-young, who is ranked 4th in the world, defeated Amin Yeo (16th in the world) of Singapore 2-0 (21-10, 21-10) on the same day.
Ahn Se-young, who participated in the 2019 Korea Open and lost to veteran Seong Ji-hyeon (national team coach) in the first round (round of 32), is challenging for her first championship in this tournament held in three years. She said three years ago she was the youngest national ‘newbie’, but now she has grown into a women’s singles ace and contender.
The possibility of reclaiming the gold medal for the first time in 7 years since Seong Ji-hyun’s victory in 2015 has increased as the two mountain ranges of the Korean women’s singles are cruising while the difficult adversary Chen Yu-fei has been removed.
Mixed doubles Kim Won-ho-Jeong Na-eun, Ko Seong-hyeon-Eom Hye-won and men’s doubles Jin Yong-Na Seong-seung cruised towards the quarterfinals, and Son Wan-ho, who retired from the national team, was the only one to reach the quarterfinals in men’s singles and showed off his skills.
Meanwhile, Corona 19 is playing the role of an ambush in this competition. Chae Yoo-jung, who was going to compete with Seo Seung-jae in the mixed doubles event that day, withdrew after testing positive. Prior to the opening of the tournament, Kim So-young and Shin Seung-chan also withdrew from the competition due to COVID-19. The two major players in women’s doubles, Kim So-young and Gong Hee-yong, and Lee So-hee and Shin Seung-chan were candidates for the championship, but they were blocked by Corona 19.
Correspondent Mansik Choi [email protected]
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