S. Korea wraps up soft tennis competition with 2 bronzes at Asian Games
South Korea's players pose with the bronze medal during the awarding ceremony of the soft tennis men's team event at the Asian Games, Sept. 20, in Nagoya, Japan. AP-Yonhap
NAGOYA — South Korea's soft tennis team wrapped up its medal competition at the ongoing Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games with three bronze medals after failing to earn a medal in the singles events Wednesday.
In the men's singles quarterfinals at Nagoya City Higashiyama Park Tennis Center in Nagoya, central Japan, Lee Ha-neul lost 4-2 to Che Po-yi of Chinese Taipei.
Lee battled to a 2-2 tie through the first four games but then lost two straight games to miss out on a place in the semifinals.
Soft tennis singles matches are played in a best-of-seven format, with the first player to win four games taking the match.
In the women's singles quarterfinals, Lee Su-jin fell 4-2 to Rena Temma of Japan, while Hwang Jeong-mi lost 4-2 to North Korea's Ri Jin-mi.
Lee Su-jin lost three straight games against the Japanese opponent and earned two games but was unable to complete the comeback.
In an all-Korean match, Hwang leveled the match at 2-2 after losing the first two games, but Ri then won the next two games to advance to the semifinals.
Ri's semifinal berth secured North Korea a bronze medal. Soft tennis does not have a bronze-medal match, with both semifinal losers receiving bronze medals.
Her compatriot Ri So-hyang also reached the women's singles semifinals with a 4-2 quarterfinal victory over Alisha Ziegler of Thailand.
The two bronze medals secured by Ri Jin-mi and Ri So-hyang will be North Korea's first medals at the Asian Games in Japan.
With the men's and women's singles events, the soft tennis medal competition concluded Wednesday.
South Korea collected three bronze medals in soft tennis — one each from the men's and women's team events and one from the mixed doubles.