The highly anticipated badminton women’s doubles pair of Lee So-hee (Incheon International Airport) and Baek Ha-na (MG Saemaul Geumgo) failed to advance to the quarterfinals. This was an unexpected result.
World No. 2 Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na were crushed by China’s Liu Shengshu and Tanning (world No. 3) 0-2 (9-21 13-21) in the quarterfinals of the women’s doubles badminton at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena in Paris, France on the 1st (Korean time).
Formed in October 2022, Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na are a pair that rose to world No. 2 by winning several international competitions in 2023.
Last year, they also contributed to winning the gold medal by defeating the world No. 1 Chen Qingchen-Zhai Fan (China) team in the Hangzhou Asian Games team event. Although they failed to beat Chen Qingchen-Zhai Fan in the individual final, their spirited performance was impressive.
Naturally, expectations for this tournament were high.
Lee So-hee-Baek Ha-na, who suffered a loss in the group preliminary round, gained momentum with two consecutive wins. With their skills, it seemed easy to advance to the quarterfinals, but the results were not good.
Following the previous Kim So-young (Incheon International Airport)-Gong Hee-yong (Jeonbuk Bank) team, they also failed to advance to the semifinals, and the Korean women’s doubles team finished this tournament without a medal. Lee So-hee-Baek Ha-na seemed to have heavy feet from the first game and were dragged around by China’s attacks throughout. After falling behind 6-16 in the middle of the game, Lee So-hee-Baek Ha-na was unable to make a comeback and lost the first game. Lee So-hee-Baek Ha-na focused even more in the second game to make up for it. However, the situation did not change. Unlike usual, when the defensive lines overlapped and the rhythm was off, China persistently dug into it. When they were down 8-15 in the middle of the second game, the expressions of Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na gradually hardened as if they sensed defeat. They tried hard until the end, but the expected reversal did not happen until the end, and they ended up finishing the tournament in the quarterfinals. 바카라게임