Badminton women’s doubles secured silver and bronze medals in Japan Open..3 teams advance to quarterfinals

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Im Soon-hyeon = Korean badminton secured silver and bronze medals in the women’s doubles at the Japan Open.

Women’s doubles Kim So-young (30) – Gong Hee-yong (26), Baek Han-a (22) – Lee Yu-rim (22), Jeong Na-eun (22) – Kim Hye-jeong (24), who participated in the Japanese Open, all won the quarterfinals and advanced to the semifinals.

Kim So-young and Gong Hee-yong, who finished runner-up at the World Individual Championships last week, announced the start of the ‘women’s doubles semifinals’.

Kim So-young and Gong Hee-yong competed 2-0 (21-21-) in the women’s doubles quarterfinals of the 2022 Japan Open Badminton Championships held in Osaka, Japan on the 2nd, 37 minutes after starting the match between 8th place Thailand’s Jongkolpan Kitita Rakul and Rawinda Prajongjai. 10 21-11).

In another women’s doubles quarterfinals that followed, Hana Baek and Yurim Lee defeated Japan’s Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara 2-0 (21-17 21-17) and entered the quarterfinals.

The world’s 32nd place Hana Baek and Yurim Lee finished the match by winning the first set against Matsumoto-Nagahara, the world’s sixth-ranked powerhouse, without giving a single lead, and then catching even the second set in a close battle.

The last was the women’s doubles ‘Dark Horse’ Jeong Na-eun and Kim Hye-jeong.

Naeun Jeong and Hyejeong Kim, ranked 10th in the world, won 2-1 (19-21 21-10 21-16) against Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amalia Khaaya Pratiwi of Indonesia, who ranked 42nd in the world.

As three women’s doubles teams advanced to the semi-finals, Korea secured at least one team to the final in this tournament, securing silver and bronze medals.

At the Japan Open, bronze medals are awarded to the two teams eliminated in the semi-finals without a separate match for third or fourth place.

If the Korean team wins the final, Korea will win the tournament for the second time in a row. If Kim So-young and Gong Hee-yong win the championship, they will protect their title.

Korea’s Kim So-young and Gong Hee-yong won the previous championship in 2019.

The tournament was held three years after the 2020 and 2021 seasons were skipped due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) situation.

In the semifinals, Kim So-young and Gong Hee-yong and Jeong Na-eun and Kim Hye-jeong will face off again after last week’s World Individual Championships Round of 16.

Hana Baek and Yurim Lee will face China’s Cheonqingcheon and Zaipan of China, who defeated Soyoung Kim and Heeyong Gong in the final of the World Individual Championships, the world’s No.

Performance continued in other sports as well.

Ahn Se-young (20), fourth in the women’s singles world, advanced to the semifinals of two consecutive tournaments following last week’s world individual championships by defeating Carolina Marin (29, Spain), who is fifth in the world and gold medalist at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, 2-1.

Also, men’s doubles Kim Ki-jeong (32) and Kim Sa-rang (33) and Choi Sol-gyu (27)-Kim Won-ho (23) advanced to the semifinals side by side.

On the other hand, Yamaguchi Akane (25) of Japan, who is expected to meet Ahn Se-young for two weeks in a row in this tournament, also confirmed the semifinals.

Ahn Se-young and Yamaguchi can both meet until they reach the finals.

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