Carolina Marín lost in the quarterfinals of the Japan Open in Osaka, falling to South Korea’s An Se Young 18-21, 21-13 and 17-21 after a marathon 74-minute duel. The experience and quality of the woman from Huelva (29 years old) yielded to the youth and mobility of the Asian woman (20).
The Olympic, world and European champion has yet to win a World Tour tournament, but confirmed that she is among the best although she still needs one more step to give her best version. This time he lost to the number 3 seed in the tournament, who was a semi-finalist in the World Championship played last week.
The meeting started with a solid, safe Carolina, precise in his blows and disarming a rival who could not find her place on the court (3-0). An Se Young increased his intensity in attack by one point and now it is the Huelva woman who suffers (3-4). The South Korean has turned the game around (5-8) against a Carolina that fails excessively and does not defend as on other occasions, reaching intermission with a worrying 6-11.
The match enters a give-and-take phase that benefits the South Korean, which maintains the four income points (10-14). At 13-15, the Spaniard does not finish off a point that she had almost won and she sees how the set becomes more difficult for her. At that moment she brings out her best repertoire to get fully into the game (16-17). An Se Young saves a delicate situation and wins a disputed first round 18-21.
Carolina started the second sleeve like a cyclone; much more aggressive in her attacking game, she was quickly solving the points in her favor (7-2); her rival doesn’t know how to change the dynamics of the game and the player from Huelva doesn’t allow a reaction (11-7).
But the woman from Huelva is in a rut, and more due to her own mistakes than to the merits of others, she sees how the five-point advantage she had comes to nothing (13-13). Far from sinking, he overcomes that bad moment with eight consecutive pointss and of a lot of quality that they give him the second set by 21-13 after an exhibition.
The third and final set had a different start than the previous two; this time the Asian was not surprised and took command against an erratic rival who could not maintain the sweet moment with which the second round ended (4-8); at intermission the situation was complicated (6-11).
Carolina fails to get close and put pressure on her opponent (9-13) and the time for reaction is running out. An Se Young is getting closer and closer to victory (12-16) against a rival who does not finish meeting and ends up giving up 17-21.
Before this clash both had met on the World Tour six times, with a favorable balance to Carolina by 4-2but their meetings were always very close (the shortest between them lasted 46 minutes).
