South Korea’s women’s table tennis team advanced to the round of 16 at the Busan 2024 Team World Championships with a third straight group victory over Puerto Rico, led by a dominant performance from Jeon Jeon-hee (32-World No. 21).
The women’s national team (No. 5), comprised of Jeon Jeon-hee, Shin Yoo-bin (No. 20-8) and Lee Sion (No. 28-44), defeated Puerto Rico (No. 9) by a match score of 3-1 in the third match of Group 5 of the women’s preliminary round at the Bexco Special Stadium in Busan, South Korea, on April 18. The tournament is being played as a men’s and women’s team event, with both men and women playing a best-of-three singles match (11 points, 5 games).
At No. 1 singles, Jeon Jeon-hee, the “eldest sister,” dominated on offense and swept Brianna Burgos (19) in straight sets (11-5 11-9 11-1).
After a promising start, Shin Yubin took over from Barton in the second singles, where it was an ‘ace matchup’, but fell to her ‘nemesis’ Adriana Dias (24) 0-3 (6-11 10-12 8-11). After dropping the first game, Shin fought back to take the second game before falling behind deuce and eventually bowing her head.
With the match score tied 1-1, Ision, playing at third singles, turned the tide with a 3-1 (7-11 11-5 11-6 11-5) come-from-behind win over Melanie Dias (28). In the fourth and final singles match, Jeon Jeon-hee avenged Shin’s loss with a 3-0 (12-10 11-8 11-6) victory over Adriana Dias to close out the match.
“I think my opponent was a little more relaxed today,” Shin said, adding, “I want to prepare well and play better.” Jeon Jeon-hee, who led the team to victory, said, “Yoo Bin lost, but this is a team match, not an individual match. The three of us won together. I made a plan while watching Yoo Bin’s game, and Zion also won, so I was able to play with a relaxed mindset.” “As we meet stronger and 토토사이트 stronger opponents, we will prepare more thoroughly so that we don’t forget what we are good at,” she vowed.
With the win, the Korean Women’s National Team secured its third straight victory, following wins over Italy (3-0) and Malaysia (3-0), to top Group 5 and advance to the Round of 16. Even if Italy, which has a 2-1 record, wins its final match and South Korea loses against Cuba (No. 43) at 8 p.m. on Sept. 19, it will remain at 3-1 and South Korea’s lead in the winner-take-all standings will not change.
The men’s team was also victorious. Led by Lim Jong-hoon (27-18th), Jang Woo-jin (29-14th), and Lee Sang-soo (34-27th), the fifth-ranked men’s national team easily defeated Chile (33rd) by a match score of 3-0 in their third match of Group 3, completing a three-game winning streak following wins over Poland (3-1) and New Zealand (3-0).
The team will next face India (No. 15) at 10 a.m. on Nov. 19. “I think our players have a little bit of difficulty with the Indian players. “They don’t have flashy skills, but they are very solid and have an unusual time signature, so if we don’t get caught up in their short skills early on and don’t take the lead, we might struggle in the end,” said Jang. “I think we need to be vigilant about those things.