ASIAN JUNIOR TEAM SF – Korea back for a 3rd final

China again made up for its loss to Japan in the 2012 final while Korea’s youngsters made the Asian Junior Mixed Team final for only the second time since they won in 2006.

Story and photos (archives) by Don Hearn

At the first mixed team competition at an Asian Junior Championship event, back in 2006, it may have seemed as though Korea would be a mainstay in the final.  After all, they had already played 3 of what would eventually become 6 consecutive mixed team finals against China at the World Juniors.

However, it quickly came to look as if 2006 had been a Lee Yong Dae effect as Korea figured in only one of the next 6 finals.  However, Korea made it back to the final with a 3-1 over Indonesia in Tuesday’s semi-final in Kota Kinabalu.

China, meanwhile, again erased the memory of its loss to Japan in the 2012 final.  They had beaten the Japanese at last year’s World Junior meet but yesterday, they re-asserted their dominance by winning 3-0 over the defending Asian Junior Mixed Team Champions.

Both China and Japan are actually understrength.  China has one top junior-age player competing at the U.S. Open this week, while Japan has only one of their three 2012 World Junior Championship finalists – Takuto Inoue – as Akane Yamaguchi and Nozomi Okuhara are both absent.

China’s only match losses so far came in its group tie with Chinese Taipei.  Wang Tzu Wei and Maldives International winners Wang Chi Lin (pictured below) and Tien Tzu Chieh – dealt China their only two defeats so far.  Men’s doubles came at the expense of New Zealand Open runners-up Liu Juchen (pictured right) and Li Junhui.

In fact, the Taiwan Wangs (and Tien) made the Koreans very nervous in the quarter-finals as well.  Trailing 1-2, Korea then had to rely on defending mixed doubles champion Chae Yoo Jung (pictured top), who had to play two matches in a row to earn the last two points for Korea and send them to the semi-finals.

Fortunately for Chae, she was able to rest in the semis.  Although named to play mixed, her team-mates had already wrapped up the tie 3-1 before she needed to take to the court.

This sets up only the second Korea-China final in Asian Junior Mixed Team Championship history.  The last time, won by China 3-1, was in 2008 and featured such stars of today as Li Xuerui, Zhang Nan, Chai Biao, Bae Youn Joo, Kim Ki Jung, Eom Hye Won, Jung Kyung Eun, and Zhong Qianxin.

Click here for complete quarter-final and semi-final results