The South Korean men’s badminton team failed to qualify for the final of the team event at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Tuesday, losing to India in a nearly five-hour battle in the semifinals. The South Koreans settled for bronze, as the Games do not hold separate third- and fourth-place matches and award bronze medals to all semifinalists.
South Korea lost to India by a match score of 2 to 3 in the semifinals at the Binjiang Gymnasium in Hangzhou earlier in the day. The team had been on a roll, defeating powerhouse Malaysia in the round of 16 and Asia’s top-ranked Indonesia in the quarterfinals, but fell short on the final day. However, the bronze medal made up for their quarterfinal exit at the 2018 Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang.
South Korea fielded world No. 47 Jeon Hyuk-jin (28) at No. 1 singles. Jeon fought hard against World No. 7 Hashina Sunil Kumar Prannoy and came from behind to take the game 1-2 (21-18 16-21 19-21). However, the reigning World Champions and World No. 4 duo Seo Seung Jae (26)-Kang Min Hyuk (24) came to the rescue at second doubles, sweeping the World No. 3 pair of Satwikseraj Lankireddy-Chirag Shetty 2-0 (21-13 26-24) to level the match.
South Korea and India also split the third singles and fourth doubles. In the third singles, Lee Yoon-gyu (26) fell to world No. 14 Lakshya Sen 0-2 (7-21 9-21), but in the fourth doubles, Kim Won-ho (24) and Na Sung-seung (24) swept the Indian pair 2-0 (21-16 21-11).
The match was decided in the final five singles. Playing in the fifth singles, KIM Sang-yup (27) won the first set against world No. 21 Kidambi 토토사이트 Srikanth, but dropped two sets in a row to lose the match 2-1 (21-12 16-21 14-21).
Meanwhile, in the women’s team event earlier in the day, South Korea, led by world No. 1 singles player Ahn Se-young (21), defeated Thailand 3-1 in straight sets to reach the final. Korea will play China for the gold medal in the final at 10 a.m. ET on Sunday.
