South Korea captures two golds in team soft tennis

South Korean soft tennis player Kim Hyeong-jun, center, celebrates with teammates after defeating Japan’s Koichi Nagae to win the gold medal during the men’s team soft tennis final match at the Incheon Asian Games, Saturday. /AP-Yonhap

INCHEON - South Korea’s soft tennis added two more golds with victories in the men’s and women’s team events Saturday, completing a sweep of all seven gold medals up for grabs in the sport for the first time in 12 years at the Incheon Asian Games.

In the men’s team final at the Yeorumul Tennis Courts, South Korea pulled off a comfortable 2-0 victory over Japan for its first gold since the 2002 Asiad.

The team competition features a doubles match, followed by a singles match and, if necessary, a second doubles match in the best-of-three format.

Kim Dong-hoon and Kim Beom-jun, the men’s doubles gold medalists here, won the first doubles match, 5-3, over Hidenori Shinohara and Koji Kobayashi.

In the next singles, Kim Hyeong-jun, who won gold in the men’s singles, defeated Koichi Nagae 4-2 to clinch the gold medal for South Korea without having to play another doubles match.

Later in the women’s team final, the South Korean team defeated Japan 2-1 to bring home the seventh gold medal in soft tennis.

Joo Og and Kim Ji-yeon won the opening doubles match 5-2 over Kana Morihara and Nao Kobayashi. Then Japan drew even as Ayaka Oba defeated Kim Bo-mi 4-1 in the singles.

In the decisive doubles match, Yoon Soo-jung and Kim Ae-kyung edged out Nao Morita and Hikaru Yamashita 5-2 for the gold medal.

South Korea monopolized all soft tennis events at the Asiad _ men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, mixed doubles, and men’s and women’s team events.

With Saturday’s team golds, Kim Beom-jun, who’d won the men’s doubles gold and the mixed doubles title, became a triple gold medalist, along with Kim Ae-kyung, who also won the women’s doubles gold and shared the mixed doubles title with Kim Beom-jun. (Yonhap)