SOUTH KOREA are turning out to be genuine contenders for the Sudirman Cup title.
On Wednesday night, the team pulled off a superb 5-0 win against one of the favourites Japan to emerge as the Group D winners and show their rivals, especially hosts China, that they mean business this year in Suzhou, China.
The team’s underdog Jeon Hyeok-jin turned hero by winning an important point against Kenta Nishimoto 21-11, 21-19.
Hyeok-jin, who had sunk into oblivion since winning the Koreans Masters last year, showed he was back in reckoning, after dropping to 69th position in the world following lack of results.
“It’s true that I won the Korean Masters last year and did well at the Thomas Cup, and since then I fell down from that level. I look back at myself a lot,” he said.
“This match was good and there were good vibes in the team, that no matter whether you win or lose, you get encouragement, and that helped me be stable.
“I’ve beaten players like Anders Antonsen (Denmark), I have that experience, and I don’t want to lose to lower-ranked players.
“Nishimoto is near top 10, so I will take heart from this and perhaps continue this style of play. It’s time for me to analyse today’s game and look at what I did right.”The other winners in the team were mixed doubles pair Kim wan-ho-jeung na-eun who upstaged Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino 19-21, 21-15, 21-5.
Youngster An Se-young showed class in her 21-11, 21-15 over Akane Yamaguchi and Kang Min-hyuk-Seo-Seung-jae stunned Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi 21-18, 21-12 while Baek Ha-na-Lee So-hee played superbly to beat Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota 21-13, 21-18.
As the runners-up, Japan will now be drawn to face one of these group champions – Malaysia (Group C), Thailand (Group B) and China or Denmark (Group A).
Group B: Thailand bt Indonesia 3-2; Canada bt Germany 3-2
Group D: South Korea bt Japan 5-0; France bt England 5-0.
