Mixed doubles pair take bronze after hard-fought soft tennis semifinal

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Published: 05 Oct. 2023, 20:06

Mixed doubles pair take bronze after hard-fought soft tennis semifinal

Japan celebrates as Korea's Kim Hyun-soo, wearing blue, alongside Mun Hye-gyeong lose the mixed doubles soft tennis semifinal at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Thursday. [YONHAP]

Korea took another bronze medal on the soft tennis court on Thursday, bested again by Japan during the semifinals of the mixed doubles team contest at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

The Korean duo of Kim Hyun-soo and Mun Hye-gyeong lost 5-4 to Japan’s Riku Uchida and Tomomi Shimuta, marking the third time Japan has knocked Korea out of the gold-medal final.

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

The nine-game semifinal lasted a total of 54 minutes, with each set running between just three and eight minutes.

Both of Japan’s mixed teams advanced to the finals, where they are guaranteed both gold and silver.

Korea’s bronze-medal finish on Thursday followed two semifinal losses, both to Japan, in the men’s and women’s team contests on Wednesday.

At the Asian Games, a bronze medal is automatically awarded to the team or athlete who loses the semifinal match in the sport.

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.

The soft tennis schedule at the Asiad wraps up Saturday with the men’s and women’s singles tournament.

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