Kim Ga-eun won the Korea Masters women’s singles championship. Photo = Korea Badminton Association
It is a meaningful leap. Kim Ga-eun (25, Samsung Life Insurance), the national badminton women’s singles representative, won the Badminton World Federation (BWF) tournament for the first time in four years and eight months. It is an opportunity to gain confidence regardless of the competition level.
Kim Ga-eun, ranked 19th in the BWF women’s singles ranking, defeated Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki (ranked 75th) 2-1 (19-21, 21-17, 21-12) in the Korea Masters women’s singles final held at the Universiade Gymnasium of Gwangju Women’s University in Gwangju on the 12th. He won the gold medal by defeating . She was pushed by the momentum of Japanese god Miyazaki, and she gave up 1 game and was dragged early in the 2nd game, but she changed the mood with 6 consecutive points in the last minute, won 2 games, and was comfortably ahead in the 3rd game.
Ga-eun Kim reached the top of the BWF Tour tournament in about 4 years and 8 months since the China Masters in March 2019. Although the Korea Masters is a Super 300 tournament with a small number of low-ranking players, the pride of the host player was maintained in the game in which Ahn Se-young did not participate due to rehabilitation treatment for a knee injury.
Kim Ga-eun showed her presence at the Hangzhou Asian Games (AG), which closed on the 8th of last month. On October 1, she won the women’s team event, where she played 3 matches (2 singles) and defeated currently ranked 6th ranked He Bingjiao (China) 2-0 (23-21, 21-17). Korea won the match, confirming its gold medal win.
Kim Ga-eun is expected to be a leading player in this sport, following Seong Ji-hyun, the current national team women’s singles coach, along with Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance) and Shim Yu-jin, who currently reign at number one in the rankings. Although she was beaten by Ahn Se-young, she is currently the country’s second-leading scorer in the women’s singles category. In April of last year, she showed an upset by defeating Chen Yufei (China), who was ranked 4th at the time, in the round of 16 of the 2022 Korea Open singles.
Korean badminton, which won 7 medals (2 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze) in Hangzhou AG, making up for the humiliation of no medals at the Jakarta-Palembang medal five years ago, is aiming for a good performance at the Paris Olympics next year.
Ga-eun Kim does not yet have the skills to aim for a top singles finish in Super 750 or higher level competitions. However, as he showed at Hangzhou AG, he is a player who displays his skills in head-to-head matches against top-ranked players. He is a player who must play an important role in the overall match by participating in two singles matches in the team event.
He failed to reach the podium at the Danish Open and French Open after Hangzhou AG. Winning the Korea Masters can be a stepping stone for a player to take another leap forward. This is also good news for the Korean women’s badminton team, which needs to improve its power.
Reporter Ahn Hee-soo [email protected]
2023-11-13 05:18:49
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