The tandem of Lee Sang-soo (33) and Cho Dae-sung (21-over Samsung Life Insurance-11th) secured the bronze medal at the World Table Tennis Championships by defeating the defending champions, Sweden. Their next opponents were the world champions Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin, but the ‘Dak Gong Doubles’ were up for the challenge. They have their sights set on a World Championship one-pot rice final against Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon.
Lee Sang-soo and Cho Dae-sung secured a bronze medal after defeating defending champions Christian Karlsson and Matthias Falk (SWE) 3-1 (11-8 11-6 8-11 11-9) in the men’s doubles quarterfinals at the ITTF World Championships 2023 in Durban, South Africa, on Saturday.
Photo credit=Korea Table Tennis Association
After taking the first two games, they led 7-4 midway through the third game and looked to be on course for an easy victory, but conceded the third game 9-11. The energized Swedish doubles team fell behind 1-5 in the fourth game, but veteran Lee Sang-soo saved two points with a sharp backhand and Dae-sung Cho’s drive made it 6-6. After breaking back to 8-6, he managed to get to 9-9, but that was as close as he would get. They closed out the match 11-9 to advance to the quarterfinals and secure the medal.
With this, Korea Table Tennis has secured three bronze medals in doubles alone (Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon, Lee Sang-soo and Cho Dae-sung, and Jeon Jeon-hee and Shin Yu-bin). Last year’s silver medalists, Jang Woo-jin (Mirae Asset) and Lim Jong-hoon (Korea Exchange), proved to be the strongest doubles pair in the tournament, reaching the quarterfinals for the second consecutive time. They will face Dmitry Ovcharov-Patrik Franziska (GER) in the final on Saturday. Lee Sang-soo and Cho Dae-sung will face the top-ranked Chinese pair of Pan Jian-dong and Wang Chuqin. JEON Jeon Hee (Mirae Asset Securities)-SHIN Yubin (Korean Air) will face the world No. 1 pair of SUN Yingxia and WANG Man Yu in the semifinals.
Photo courtesy of the Korea Table Tennis Association
Lee “Doc” Sang-soo is the eldest member of the South Korean men’s national table tennis team. With his powerful drives, Lee Sang-soo has had a stellar career on the international stage and is the most decorated table tennis ace of all time. He has always been a strong player in doubles with his quick attacks and warm heart for his opponents. He won a silver medal in mixed doubles with Park Young-sook, who is now his wife, in Paris in 2013, a bronze medal in Suzhou in 2015 with Seo Hyun-duk (acting head coach of Boram Hallelujah) and a bronze medal in 2017 with Jung Young-sik (now coach of Mirae Asset Securities). In 2017, he won a bronze medal in the men’s singles event in Düsseldorf, returning to the singles medal table after a 10-year absence, and in 2018, he won a bronze medal in the men’s team event in Halmstad. Born in 1990, the 34-year-old South Korean has been a steady presence on the World Championships stage for the past decade since Paris 2013, winning medals in every singles, mixed doubles, and team event, but the men’s doubles bronze was especially special as he teamed up with the youngest player on the team, his junior, and left-handed ace Cho Dae-sung. Nicknamed the “Table Tennis Prodigy” and recognized as the future of Korean men’s table tennis, Cho Dae-sung won his first medal at the World Championships alongside his senior ace.
Selfie with Yoo Seung-min, President of the Korea Table Tennis Association. Photo: Korea Table Tennis Association
Their table tennis is fast and strong. The combination of right-handed and left-handed dak-gong, Lee Sang-soo’s kwan-rok and Cho Dae-sung’s aggression are the perfect combination. Cho Dae-sung, who beat Pan Zhen-dong at the WTT Contender in March, and Lee Sang-soo, who has caught the world’s strongest mahrong, have no fear of the Great Wall. Speaking ahead of their quarterfinal matchup against Pan Zhendong-Wang Chuqin, Lee said, “I can’t say anything about their skill level, but we have enough to break through. No matter who we play or how we play, we will do what we need to do,” he said. “China Killer” Cho Dae-sung also said, “We are undefeated against Fanjiandong in the past year. We will continue our winning streak this time around.”
-Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon advanced to the quarterfinals. What are your impressions?
Lee Sang-soo: They were the No. 1 doubles team in Houston last year, so we prepared thoroughly, and we thought they were unbeatable, but it feels good to have a good result.
Dae Sung Cho: I’m happy that I lost once in Houston, and I’m happy that I made it to the quarterfinals because it’s my first medal, but I think I need to prepare well for tomorrow’s quarterfinal against China and win.
-Your next quarterfinal opponent is top-ranked Chinese player Zhao.
Lee : I think they are definitely very good players토토사이트, but I think we can win in doubles rather than singles, and I think we have enough breakthroughs, so I think we can win if we go in and do what we have to do because our skills are sharp and aggressive, so I think we have to prepare well enough and do what we have to do, and I think we will have a good match.
Jo : She’s a strong player, but she’s still undefeated in singles and doubles for almost a year. I’ll try to keep my winning streak going.
-Today’s match, you won two sets, then lost the third set, and the fourth set was close, then you lost it. You must have been worried.
Lee : I think we lost the flow in the third set when we should have finished it off, and it carried over to the fourth set. I think there was a part where we lost the flow because we were passive, so I thought we had to do something more, and I thought we had to fight and win, but in the middle of the set, the ball was going in well, and the various plans worked well, and we pulled it back, and it was an important point, so I think my opponent was nervous, so I induced it, and it worked well, so I think it worked well.
▶Jo : I was winning the third set and then moved on, and the game flow was such that I had to prepare for the fifth set, so when I was losing 1-6, I tried to do some techniques that I hadn’t tried before to try to win the next set, so I was lucky to get a few of them in, and my opponent was nervous and the score went up together, so I thought that we had an advantage at the end, so I didn’t think that we were going to lose.
-Two teams reached the men’s doubles quarterfinals. I hope to see Korea in the final.
Lee: I think everyone here thinks that, so we have to win, and Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon are ranked.