Both the Korean men’s and women’s national table tennis teams wrapped up their group stage with four wins.
The South Korean men’s team won their final match of the BNK Busan Bank 2024 Busan World Table Tennis Championships Group 3 against India (No. 15) 3-0 (3-0, 3-0, 3-1) at BEXCO Busan at 10:00 a.m. on Monday.
It was their fourth win in four matches. They got off to a strong start with a 3-1 win in their first group match against Poland on Sept. 16. Leading the way, Jang Woo-jin dropped two straight sets to Macej Kubic but bounced back to take the match in three sets. In the second set, Lim Jong-hoon won 3-1 against Milosz Legzemski. Ahn Jae-hyun fell 1-3 to Yacoub Dias, but Jang Woo-jin came back in the fourth set to close out the match with a 3-0 win over Rezimsky.
The men’s team faced New Zealand in their second match. They won 3-0 (3-0, 3-0, 3-0) in a dominant performance. In the first match, Ahn Jae-hyun won 1-0 against Alfreda de la Peña. In the second match, Sang-soo Lee and “Korean” Timothy Choi faced off, with Lee taking a 3-0 victory. Park Kyu-hyun and Maxwell Henderson also won 3-0 in the third match.
The third match was against Chile, who also won 3-0. Leading the way was Lim Jong-hoon, who won the first set 11-6 against Gustavo Gomes before dropping the second set 7-11, but bounced back to take the third and fourth sets 11-6 and 11-7, respectively. In the second set, Jang Woo-jin won 11-8, 11-4, 11-6 against Nicolas Burgos, while Lee Sang-soo won 11-8, 11-7, 12-10 against Felipe Olivares.
They then went on to win 3-0 in a must-win match against the ‘Bokboks’ India to secure a direct ticket to the Round of 16. Spearhead Jang Woo-jin won 3-0 against Harmit Desai. Lim Jong-hoon followed with a 3-0 win over Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, while Lee Sang-soo took the first set against Sharath Kamal Achanta before dropping the second, but then clinched the third and fourth sets to close out the match.
“When you look at the score against India today, it looks like it was easy, but it wasn’t,” said coach Joo Se-hyuk after the match. “The matches against India and Poland in the group stage were tight, but I think the other two matches were easy. I’m asking the players to raise the tension level to 100, thinking that it’s from here on out.”
“There are a lot of teams that are wary. There’s Denmark, Taiwan lost to Japan, so we could meet them. There’s Croatia,” he added, “so there are teams we have to be careful of. But our players are in good shape right now. If we prepare well, we should be able to win.”
The women’s team also won all four matches. They won their final match against Cuba (ranked 43rd) in Group 5 of the BNK Busan Bank 2024 Busan World Table Tennis Championships at 8 p.m. on Nov. 19 at BEXCO Busan with a match score of 3-0 (3-0, 3-0, 3-0).
The women’s team also got off to a good start. On the first day of play against Italy, Jeon Jeon-hee defeated Deborah Vivarelli 3-0 and Shin Yubin swept Nicoletta Stepanova 3-0. In the third match of the day, Ishion took the second set before dropping the third, but rallied to take the fourth 11-9 to end the match.
On Sunday, the Korean women’s national team won 3-0 against Malaysia. Shin Yubin swept Ho Ying 3-0, before Jeon Jeon-hee also swept Karen Lin 3-0. Ision followed with a 3-0 win against Alice Chang Li Xian.
On the 18th, they faced Puerto Rico and won 3-1. In the No. 1 match, Jeon Jeon-hee won 3-0 against Brianna Burgos. In the second match, Shin Yubin was knocked out by Adriana Diaz, 0-3. However, in 토토 match 3, Ision Ision dropped the first set to Melanie Diaz, but bounced back to win the next three sets. Jeon Jeon-hee, playing in the fourth match, followed with a 3-0 win over Diaz to secure her spot in the round of 16.
The women’s team rested Shin Yoo-bin and Jeon Ji-hee for their final group match on the 19th. In their place were Lee Eun-hye and Yoon Hyo-bin. For both, it was their first appearance at the World Championships.
Leading the way was ISION. Ision led off with a 3-0 victory over Daniela Fonseca Carrasana. Eun Hye Lee was next up in the second match, and she battled to a 12-10 first set victory over Estela Crespo in a match that went down to deuce. However, she kept her momentum and took the second and third sets with ease. In the third set, Yoon Hyo-bin came out and dominated against Rosalba Aguilar La O, winning 3-0.
“Our two main players were rested, and I think they must have gotten a new feeling from watching their first match of the day,” said coach Oh Kwang-heon after the match. “In the round of 16, we will use our aces Jeon Jeon-hee and Shin Yoo-bin, and we will try our best in each match with a big heart to reach the quarterfinals and try again from there.”
