Korea takes bronze twice in soft tennis after back-to-back losses to Japan

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Korea takes bronze twice in soft tennis after back-to-back losses to Japan

Published: 04 Oct. 2023, 17:21 Updated: 04 Oct. 2023, 23:50

Korea's Yoon Hyoung-wook loses the singles match in the men's soft tennis team semifinal against Japan's Toshiki Uematsu at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Korea took two bronze medals in soft tennis at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Wednesday after losing both the men’s and women’s team contests — each to Japan — in the semifinal round. The finishes marked Korea's first and second medals in the sport at this year's Asiad.

In Asiad soft tennis, the semifinal round consists of three matches: a doubles match, followed by a singles and then another doubles to close.

It's like tennis, but softer — and Korea is really good at it

The Korean men’s team lost to Japan 2-0, first losing the doubles match followed by the singles.

The duo of Kim Tae-min and Kim Hyun-soo won their first game against Japan’s Takafumi Uchimoto and Sora Hirooka but failed to make a comeback, winning just one more game and ending the match 5-2.

Korea’s Yoon Hyoung-wook played a close game against Japan’s Toshiki Uematsu but failed to prevail, losing 4-3 after coming behind in the last two games of the match.

At the same time on a nearby court, the Korean women’s team also lost to Japan 2-0. Korea’s Ji Da-young and Lim Ji-nah lost 5-4 to Japan’s Noa Takahashi and Emina Watanabe.

Korea’s Lee Min-seon then lost 4-1 to Japan’s Kurumi Onoue in a quick five-game match — just 17 minutes.

Soft tennis is like tennis, but the game is played with a different ball and on a smaller court. For singles games, the court is 8.23 meters wide and 23.77 meters long and for doubles games, the court gets slightly wider, with a 10.97-meter baseline.

It shares the same rules as regular tennis — a player scores when the opposing side fails to return the ball before it bounces twice.

Games can get intense, particularly in doubles matches where each team has more opportunities to make creative plays, and against national teams like Japan and Chinese Taipei, also podium regulars alongside Korea.

Korea will have more opportunities to take medals at this year’s Asian Games. There are men’s and women’s singles and doubles competitions, as well as a mixed doubles tournament, still to come before the soft tennis schedule wraps up on Saturday.

Although Korea is the most successful country in Asiad soft tennis, the national team hit a slight slump at the last Games in 2018, losing the women’s team contest to Japan — the second time Korea gave up gold, also to Japan in 2010, and the mixed doubles tournament to Chinese Taipei despite being the reigning champions since 2002 in Busan.

Still, Korea took six medals at the last Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, winning two gold, two silver and two bronze. Japan was the second-best team in the sport, taking four medals — two gold, one silver and one bronze.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]