Unified Korean women’s duo wins handily in table tennis Korea Open

DAEJEON, South Korea, July 18  — A unified women’s table tennis duo of South Korea and DPR Korea won their first victory in women’s doubles handily in Korea Open here on Wednesday.
The pair of South Korea’s Suh Hyowon and the DPRK’s Kim Song I defeated Uzbekistan’s Olga Kim and Regina Kim, securing a straight games success (11-4, 11-5, 11-2) in the qualification round of the Seamaster 2018 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour Platinum Korea Open.
The Korea Open kicked off Tuesday in the country’s central city of Daejeon, about 160km south of the capital Seoul. It would last till Sunday.
It brought together some 230 players from 27 countries, including the DPRK which joined the South Korea-hosted table tennis event for the first time.
The success of Suh and Kim was the repetition of the unified Korean mixed doubles team, the DPRK’s Choe Il and South Korea’s Yoo Eunchong who beat Spain’s Alvaro Robles and Galia Dvorak on the opening day in the full five-game match.
Suh is South Korea’s top-ranked female player, listed as No. 13 on the world rankings, while Kim is the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist in singles, who is ranked No. 55.
“At first, we were nervous, because it was our first match. Later, we were relaxed and started discussing on how to manage the match,” said Suh.
Suh and Kim trained together only for a couple of days. It was their first doubles match.
“This Korea Open is our first doubles. Our first goal was to pass the qualification stage. Now, we want to progress step by step,” said the South Korean player.
Meanwhile, the DPRK’s female duo of Choe Hyon Hwa and Pyon Song Gyong experienced a narrow reverse defeat to Singapore’s Lin Ye and Zeng Jian in the preliminary round of the women’s doubles event. – XINHUA