Korea’s first point men’s singles player: Lee Hyun Il

Korea’s men’s team was up against tough opponents in the final of the Thomas Cup. The Korean’s tried to throw the Chinese off-balance by changing their line-up, using the same recipe that had proved successful for their women in the Uber Cup of 2010. This time, however, it didn’t work and the Korean men went down in three matches, taking away the runner-up trophy as consolation.

In the first match, Korea’s Lee Hyun II was up against China’s Lin Dan. Lee played well to begin with but the pressure applied by Lin was immense; in the face of this pressure Lee made 27 errors in all in the match, effectively throwing away any chance of winning and going down in straight games, 14:21, 17:21.

In the second match, Korea’s temporary pairing of  Kim Sa Rang and Lee Yong Dae went head to head against world number one pair China’s Cai Yun / Fu Hai Feng.

The Koreans made a few mistakes to begin with but their speed around the court allowed them to keep close to the Chinese pair for a time, however, Cai / Fu were still able to take the first game with relative ease, 21:16.

After changing sides, Lee / Kim were, on the strength of their iron will and solid basic technique, able to resist the successive assaults of the Chinese and, with their midcourt drives giving them an advantage in the later part of the game, they had three match points;unfortunateley, Lee, a veteran of many battles and not known for cracking under pressure, surprisingly made a succession of errors, missing the chance to take the match to a deciding third game, the Koreans losing 16:21, 23:25.

Korea’s second point men’s doubles player : Kim Sa Rang

Korea’s second point men’s doubles player : Lee Yong Dae

In the third match, Korea’s Shon Wan Ho played Zhan Long. Facing his lanky opponent, Shon found it hard to pry open his defenses and, while his game picked up somewhat in the second half of the second game and he narrowed the gap for a time, he lost in straight games, 9:21, 13:21.

Korea’s Third point men’s singles player: Shon Wan Ho

Korea took home two runner-up trophies from the Uber and Thomas cups, world badminton’s biggest biennale event, showing that the men’s and the women’ teams are amongst the best in the world.

The Korean men’s team, runner-up in in the 2012 Thomas Cup, photographed together

The Chinese Taipei women’s team also deserves praise. Even with top players absent they almost caused an upset by coming close to beating Korea, showing great fighting spirit. The Chinese Taipei team will now engage in a spell of behind-closed-doors training in preparation for the Indonesia Open Super Series in June. For more exciting tournament news, keep a close eye on VICTOR SPORT GLOBAL and  http://www.victorsport.com/