“I cried with relief that I won”
Shin Yoo-bin cried, Miu Hirano cried – it was a hard-fought, hard-fought match.
Women’s table tennis ace Shin Yoo-bin (No. 8-Korean Air) became the first South Korean athlete in 20 years to reach the Olympic table tennis singles quarterfinals.
Shin Yubin defeated world No. 13 Miu Hirano of Japan 4-3 (11-4 11-7 11-7 11-5 7-11 8-11 9-11 13-11) in the quarterfinals of the women’s singles at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the South Paris Arena in Paris, France, on Monday (June 1) after nearly an hour-and-a-half of intense action.
It was a nerve-wracking match. Hirano was the same player who defeated Shin Yubin in the semifinals of the women’s team event at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. Shin lost both the first and fourth singles against Japan, especially the fourth singles, where she was knocked down by Hirano to reach the final. She avenged that disappointment this time.
Shin, who shared a bronze medal with Lim Jong-hoon (Korea Exchange) in the mixed doubles event at the Games, which ended on Aug. 31, needs just one more win in the women’s singles to add her second Olympic medal to her resume.
The last time South Korean table tennis won an Olympic singles medal was in Athens 2004, when Yoo Seung-min (President of the Korea Table Tennis Association) won gold in the men’s singles and Kim Kyung-ah won bronze in the women’s singles at the same event. No South Korean player has ever reached the quarterfinals of the Olympic singles competition in either the men’s or women’s events.
Joining her in the final will be world No. 4 Chen Meng of China. Chinese table tennis has Sun Yingxia, Wang Manyu, Wang Yidi and Chen Meng ranked first, second, third and fourth in the world in women’s singles, respectively, with Hina Hayata (JPN) ranked fifth and Chen Xingtong sixth. With so many top ranked players in the world, Sun Yingxia and Chen Meng were the only two women’s singles players in the tournament.
Chen Meng, ranked 23rd in the world, defeated Austria’s Sofia Polkanova 4-0 (11-5 11-3 11-0 11-8) in the quarterfinals to set up a meeting with Shin Yubin. Chen is 파워볼사이트 currently ranked No. 4 in the world, but she was one of the most dominant players in Chinese women’s table tennis in the mid-to-late 2010s, winning both the women’s singles and women’s team titles at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
Xin Yubin has faced Chen Meng once before, in the quarterfinals of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Singapore Smash in March, losing 1-4. It will be a tough matchup as he is weak against Chinese players, but given his recent rise in the tournament, he should be able to pull it off. In the mixed doubles semifinals, where he was paired with Lim Jong-hoon, Shin lost 2-4 in straight sets to Wang Chu-chin-Sun Ying-sa.
In fact, the match seemed to be in Shin’s favor.
He won the first three games in a row, using aggressive attacks to keep Hirano on his toes. Hirano’s most points in games 1-3 were seven in the second set.
But the tide turned in the fourth game when Hirano changed clothes and fought back. As Shin’s unforced errors mounted, Hirano revived the attack that helped her beat Shin at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year.
Eventually, Hirano took games 4, 5, and 6 in a row to level the match.
Game 7 was the climax of the match, and it was an epic battle. Yubin Shin jumped out to an early 5-1 lead, but Hirano fought back to even the score at 10-10. They traded points to make it 11-11.
But here, the goddess of luck smiled on Shin Yubin. Both of Hirano’s attacks hit the net.
Both players cried as they tried to keep a poker face at the loss. Hirano sobbed hesitantly on the spot after the loss was finalized, while Shin Yubin cried tears of joy after a tough match.