Team Korea sizes up its singles

On the eve of the Olympic qualifying period, Korea’s second and third string singles players all participated in their own internal qualification event.  Hwang Hye Youn, Kim Moon Hi, Lee Dong Keun, and Hwang Jung Woon all passed with flying colours, winning four straight matches.

The top 3 men and women were exempt but the existing second string was made to clash with national team hopefuls in a grouped round robin event.  The final roster of the men’s team served up few surprises as Hanoi International champion Lee Dong Keun and East Asian Games gold medallist Choi Ho Jin confirmed their spots on the team, as did Park Sung Min and junior Lee Hong Je.  Hong Ji Hoon and Han Ki Hoon joined 25-year-old Hwang Jung Woon in returning to the national team after a short hiatus.

The women’s qualification was trickier.  In addition to Hwang and Kim,  26-year-old Seo Yoon Hee, too, was undefeated but was not among the final choices for the team.  The 2010 Australian Open champion, who began a nearly 7-year stretch on the national team at age 16, told Badzine last year that she did not intend to return to the national team despite several recent favourable results both nationally and internationally.  Two other players were also not picked despite placing high in the qualification tournament, all three being veterans with two team-mates from their pro teams already picked for the national squad.

Lee Hyun Jin and Jang Soo Young both return to the roster after being dropped this past winter.  Lee won the Hanoi International last spring but Jang has had no international results since late 2007 and lost two matches in the weekend qualification.  Four women will be joining the national team for the first time, including junior player Ko Eun Byul.

World #32 Bae Seung Hee withdrew from the qualification tournament and was not among the ten players named for the final squad.  The 27-year-old has won only 3 international matches since her runner-up performance in Taipei last year and she withdrew from this week’s India Open.

The Korean team plans to run doubles qualifications in mid-May.

Korea’s new singles squads are shown below:

Men
Park Sung Hwan
Lee Hyun Il
Shon Wan Ho
Lee Dong Keun
Choi Ho Jin
Park Sung Min
Lee Hong Je
(returning)
Hong Ji Hoon
Han Ki Hoon
Hwang Jung Woon

Women
Bae Youn Joo
Sung Ji Hyun
Hwang Hye Youn
Kim Moon Hi
(returning)
Lee Hyun Jin
Jang Soo Young
(first time on national team)
Jung Na Ra
Jung Mi Jin
Kim Soo Jin
Ko Eun Byul