The ‘Dak Gong Doubles Team’ of Lee Sang-soo (33) and Cho Dae-sung (21-over Samsung Life Insurance-11th) were once again blocked by the Great Wall of China.
The pair defeated the world champions Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin in the men’s doubles quarter-finals of the 2023 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Championships in Durban, South Africa, on 26 June (KST) with a game score of 1-3 (11-7, 3-11, 5-11, 12-14).메이저사이트
After coming from behind to beat defending champions Christian Karlsson and Matthias Falk (SWE) 3-1 in the quarter-finals to reach the semi-finals and secure the bronze medal, Lee Sang-soo and Cho Dae-sung came out strong against the Chinese pair.
They took the first game 11-7 to set the tone. The Chinese players’ panic was evident, but they fell behind 0-6 in game two thanks to Fan Jiandong’s aggressive net play. They lost the next two games 3-11. In the third game, she was down 0-4, but she stabilised her reception and caught up to 3-4 and 4-5. However, an unforced error dropped him to 5-8. A brilliant drive rally by the Chinese made it 5-9, but a series of missed serves saw them lose game three 5-11. Game 4 was a bloodbath. Lee Sang-soo and Cho Dae-sung turned the tide with a 3-0 lead. However, a strong spinning ball from Fan Zhendong shook their reception and they lost two points, before Lee Sang-soo’s duck shot made it 4-2. A Korean reception error then levelled the score at 4-4. However, Lee Sang-soo and Cho Dae-sung were not about to let the momentum slip away. They fought off rallies and countered attack after attack to take a 7-4 and 8-5 lead. However, at 8-7 and within one point, they conceded an 8-9 lead to the world number one Pan Jian Dong-jo just after the break. At 8-10, facing match point, he fought back to the end. Lee Sang-soo and Cho Dae-sung traded points to force a deuce game at 10-10. Lee Sang-soo’s clever use of the course gave him an 11-10 lead. Just before taking game four at 12-10, Pan Zhendong’s cartoonish Jin Ki Myung Ki proved to be the game-changer of the day. Lee Sang-soo’s drive almost resulted in a net point, but Pan Zhen-dong desperately scooped up the ball that fell into the net to take an edge point. In the end, they lost the next four games 12-14 to take the match 1-3. The Chinese pair of Zhang Wujin and Lim Jonghun, who had beaten Germany’s Ocharovs in the previous match to reach the final for the first time in two tournaments, were denied a gold medal in the one-pot final.
However, their performance against a strong Chinese pairing featuring the world’s 1-2 players was commendable. The eldest member of the Korean team, Lee Sang-soo, won his third bronze medal of the tournament in the men’s doubles alongside young ace Cho Dae-sung. Born in 1990, the 34-year-old South Korean has been a regular presence on the World Championships stage for the past decade since Paris 2013, winning medals in every singles, mixed doubles and team event he has competed in. Jo Dae-sung, nicknamed the ‘table tennis prodigy’ and recognised as the future of Korean men’s table tennis after beating Fan Zhendong in March, also soared through a long injury tunnel to claim his first medal on the World Championships stage.