Bangkok: With An Seyoung, Lee Sohee, Shin Seungchan, and other Korean shuttlers nervously cheering courtside, World No. 46 Sim Yu Jin sealed Korea’s 3-2 comeback win over fifteen-time champions – China in the Uber Cup final with a thrilling three-set victory against World No. 15 Wang Zhi Yi.
In a pulsating third women’s singles match, Sim needed 88 minutes to defeat Wang Zhi Yi. In the first game, Sim required seven match-point before staging a rousing rally to fight past Wang 28-26.
Wang then made a dramatic comeback in the second set to keep China’s chances of winning its 16th Uber Cup alive when she quickly halted Sim’s momentum by clinching the second game 21-18.
Sim who lost to Wang in the 2022 Korea Masters on April, 12th, refused to let history repeat itself as the Korean mounted a strong third set by racing to a 13-1, 19-5 in the rubber-set.
Her teammates erupted in celebration when Sim eventually won the match with a 21-8 victory in the decider after Wang failed to return a shuttlecock push from Sim towards her right baseline.
Korea defeated China 3-1 to win their first Uber Cup in 2010 which was held in Kuala Lumpur, and this was Korea’s second Uber Cup trophy. This was also the first time an Uber Cup final has gone to the fifth match since the 1994 edition when Indonesia defeated China 3-2 in Jakarta.
In the first women’s singles, World No. 4 An Se Young wasted 3 match-points, allowing the Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Chen Yufei to reel off 5 consecutive points to come back from 17-20 in the decider to ultimately win the first point for China by beating An 17-21, 21-15, 22-20.
Korea’s World No. 2 women’s doubles Lee Sohee/Shin Seungchan refused to give China a 2-0 advantage by coming back from 6-11 in the second set, and 5-9 in the third set to level the overall score 1-1 by beating World No. 1 Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan 12-21, 21-18, 21-18.
World No. 9 He Bing Jiao of China was dominant in the second women’s singles match against World No. 19 Kim Ga Eun, beating the Korean 21-12, 21-13 to give China a 2-1 lead.
Huang Dong Ping/Li Wen Mei who scored the winning point for China in the 2020 Uber Cup final against Misaki Matsutomo/Nami Matsuyama of Japan on October 16, 2021, failed to pull off another victory this time when Korea’s Kim Hye Jeong/Kong Heeyong stubbornly leveled the tie 2-2 by outlasting Huang/Li 22-20, 21-17 in the second women’s doubles match.
