Dalseong-gun tennis team achieves fifth victory at national league

Dalseong-gun tennis team achieves fifth victory at national league. May. 14, 2016 07:23. by 문경=김종석기자 kjs0123@donga.com.

Dalseong County defeated Suncheon 3 to 2 on Friday after three hours and 20 minutes of the final male team match (2 in singles and 3 in doubles) in the 94th Dong-A Ilbo National Tennis Championship held in the International Tennis Court. Suncheon City was attempting to have its first championship against Dalseong but failed. Dalseong had three straight wins in 2009 and finally retrieved the champion title in four years from 2012.

“For the last one and a half years, our team had difficulties including losing our players to the national team, which resulted in no prize," Dalseong team manager Nam remarked. "I tried to make the players feel relaxed without any pressure.”

When the score was 2 to 2, Dalseong’s Kim Jong-yoon and Kim Man-yeol defeated Suncheon’s Cho Seong-je and Jeong 4 to 2. In a doubles match, it is typical that one player covers the front while the other covers the back. On the day, however, the Kim duo chose an unusual strategy: both of them stood in the front and made an offensive play. Left-handed Kim Jong-yoon played the pivotal role in the victory with his sharp smashes and volleys. Dalseong lost in both single matches but won in all three doubles. Suncheon had the best player in the country, Kim Dong-hoon, but it lost in all doubles, remaining in the second place for the second time after the 2011 championship.

The championship has the longest history among single sport competitions in Korea. From 1923, it only had women matches until 2006 when men matches first started.

In the final male university student match, Hankyong National University had its second win against Youngsan University winning by 3 to 1 as HNU’s Kang Dong-seong, an alumnus from Mungyeong Technical High School, won in both singles and doubles.