“I’m representing Korea and I can’t give up a single event!”
“I’m going to compete in singles.”
When we caught up with Shin Yubin Shin (20, Korean Air, World No. 8) ahead of the Paris Olympics, she made it clear that she wants to win a medal in the women’s singles. Since Kim Kyung-ah at the 2004 Athens Olympics, no Korean woman has finished higher than fourth. Everyone was talking about the mixed doubles, women’s team event, and medals. “I will compete in singles as well,” said top-ranked Shin Yoo-bin. “There is no athlete in the world who gives up. You either can’t do it or you can’t do it, but there is no giving up. You can’t give up on one sport when you represent your country.” She said she is focusing on training to build muscle mass and stamina in order to perform well in all sports. Even after winning his first bronze medal in 12 years in the mixed doubles event with Lim Jong-hoon on the 30th, Shin didn’t relax. There was still work to be done, and the South Korean top ranked player made history again in the women’s singles.
Shin Yubin faced Japanese ace Miu Hirano (ranked 13th in the world) in the quarterfinals of the women’s singles at the Paris Olympic Table Tennis Championships at the Paris Arena in South Paris, France, on Monday. The head-to-head record against Hirano was even at 1-1. However, she lost to Shin Yubin 1-3 in the semifinals of the team event at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. Hirano won a bronze medal in the women’s singles at the 2017 World Championships in Düsseldorf, Japan’s first medal in 48 years. She was the ace behind Japan’s silver medal in the team event at Tokyo 2021. But 11 months later, in a revenge match, Olympic medalist Shin Yubin is a different player. Oh Kwang-heon, who worked alongside Hirano for four years as Japan’s women’s national team head coach, was on the bench against South Korea. In game one, they jumped out to a 7-1 lead and never looked back, closing out the match 11-4. Game 2 Long serves, short serves, and clever gameplans rattled Hirano. She celebrated after winning 11-7. Game 3 was a close one, 11-5. At the start of the fourth game, with Shin taking a perfect 3-0 lead, Hirano announced that he was going to change his clothes. Hirano was 파워볼게임 clearly flustered. Fans cheered as a close-up of Shin Yubin leisurely eating a banana and energy gel to replenish her nutrition was shown on the stadium’s big screen.
Hirano’s fierce backhand chased him down. Hirano took games 4-6 in a row, 11-7, 11-8, 11=9, to level the match at 3-3. The match was back to square one. In the last seven games, Shin Yubin came back strong. She won three points to take a 4-0 lead, but Hirano fought back. It was a classic Korean-Japanese match. After a tightly contested 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, Hirano saved match point, but Shin refused to give up. He turned the match into a deuce game and eventually saved a dramatic match point at 13-11.
After the 4-3 victory, Shin Yubin burst into tears as he clinched a spot in the quarterfinals. “I think I was relieved, and I thought, ‘It’s over, I’ve won, I’ve finished,'” he said. “It was a match I’ll never forget, a really difficult match. I want to say well done to myself for playing well,” he laughed. Shin Yubin recalled how the tide turned after Hirano went to change clothes when the score was 3-0. “When he went to change, I felt my body stiffen up a little bit, and I thought, ‘He’s breaking the flow. I didn’t think I had won until the end because he was so good. One by one, the game plan kept changing. It was a very interesting match,” he smiled. In the quarterfinals, Shin will try to win her first women’s singles medal in 20 years after her teammate and senior, Korean Air coach Kim Kyung-ah, won bronze at Athens 2004. “It’s a great honor to reach the quarterfinals of the Olympic singles. I want to play a winning match with no regrets,” Shin said, her eyes shining. “I think I can win if I play one match at a time. I will focus on one point,” he said.
Xin Yubin will face Chinese ace Chen Meng, ranked No. 4 in the world, in the quarterfinals on Sunday. In March, she lost 1-4 (2-11, 11-9, 4-11, 8-11, 9-11) in the quarterfinals of the Singapore Smash, but she is not the same player she was then. With her current form, she should be able to pose a pleasant challenge to ‘The Great Wall’.