MALAYSIA OPEN 2010 QF – Second Straight SS Semis for Young Koreans

By Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent, live in Kuala Lumpur.  Photos: BadmintonPhoto (live)

“We went into today’s match thinking they’d beat us once, and at home, so we were determined to not let it happen again,” said Yoo Hyun Young afterward.  “It really was a kind of revenge match.”

Yoo, who claimed two year ago that she preferred playing Chinese teams to playing the Korean veterans, admitted that the semi-final against Olympic champions Du/Yu would be a different story.  “This next match will be a learning experience.  We’re just going to give it our best shot.

“Of course, it would be nice to win.  But we are still young, last week was our first Super Series and this is our first time playing against a top Chinese national team pair.”

Yoo/Jung have been together since high school and in the World Junior Championships in both 2006 and 2007, they were beaten by the eventual winners.  In the former case, that was Ma Jin / Wang Xiaoli, top seeds at this tournament.  Yoo was kept out of the 2008 World Juniors but the two were reunited as a pair last summer and in November, the two beat Lee Kyung Won / Ha Jung Eun to take their second Korea International title.

Starting with this tournament, the women’s doubles pairs have had 1992 Olympic gold medallist Kim Moon Soo in their coaching corner.  Although he is not scheduled to begin coaching at the national training centre until after the Malaysia Open, Kim worked with Yoo and Jung as national junior team coach until 2007.  In fact, Kim is the second former partner of Park Joo Bong to join the Korean coaching staff in the past two months as Chung Myung Hee signed on in December as well.