Ryu Fails to Defend Title in Table Tennis Singles
Ryu Fails to Defend Athens Title in Table Tennis Singles
By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
South Korean table tennis player Ryu Seung-min's hopes for an Olympic title defense died when the 26-year-old lost Thursday at the Beijing Games.
The reigning singles champion fell to Hong Kong's Ko Lai Chak 11-7, 11-8, 11-6, 4-11, 5-11, 12-10 in the third round.
Ryu had struggled throughout these Olympics, losing five times in the team competition, where South Korea finished with a bronze medal.
Ryu, who defeated world No. 1 Wang Hao of China in the final of the 2004 Athens Games, came to Beijing ranked No. 8 in the world, but struggled against the 32nd-ranked Ko.
Ko used sharp smashes and speedy attacks to win the first three sets.
However, Ryu, on the edge of elimination, regained his composure to win the next two sets. He won the fourth by scoring six points in a row and pulled off a convincing fifth-set victory.
Ryu continued to flash the form that made him an Olympic champion, building a 9-6 lead in the sixth set, but Ko came back to win 12-10, clinching the match.
All of South Korea's participants in the women's field were also eliminated.
Kim Kyung-ah, an Athens bronze medalist in singles, lost to Wang Chen of the United States 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 10-12, 6-11, 11-9, 11-5 in a marathon match that took 1 hour and 15 minutes.
After the 11th-ranked Kim entered the sixth set with a 3-2 advantage, the world's top defensive player could not prevent the Chinese-born American from rallying to win the match.
Wang, who ranks 23rd in the world, became the first American to reach an Olympic quarterfinal in the sport.
Korea's Park Mi-young was ousted by China's Wang Nan 11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 11-13, 11-5.
Park, who is ranked No. 5 and known for her strong defense, hoped to force her opponent into making mistakes, returning most shots with a slow chop.
After losing the first two sets, Park's defensive strategy was effective in winning the next set to pull within 2-1. But Wang, who topped the singles competition at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, used strong smashes to win the next three sets.