Korea rounds off soft tennis schedule with gold in women's contest

Korea added two more medals in soft tennis at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Saturday, with Mun Hye-gyeong winning gold and Yoon Hyoung-wook taking bronze on the last day of the tournament.

Korean soft tennis player Mun Hye-gyeong poses for a photo after winning a gold medal in the women's singles at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China on Saturday. [YONHAP]

Korea added two more medals in soft tennis at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Saturday, with Mun Hye-gyeong winning gold and Yoon Hyoung-wook taking bronze on the last day of the tournament.

Mun faced Takahashi Noa of Japan in the women’s singles final at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China and dominated throughout the match.

She won the first two games 4-2 and the third and fourth games 4-0, winning the match 4-0 to claim Korea’s first gold in soft tennis at this year’s Asiad.

Yoon’s match against Chang Yu Sung of Chinese Taeipei in the men’s singles semifinal, on the other hand, was a fierce contest with both players alternating wins.

The match score was tied at 3-3 after the sixth game and Chang won the seventh game 7-3, ending Yoon’s bid to reach the final.

Yoon still secured bronze despite the loss, as losers in the semifinals win an automatic bronze.

The two medals from Mun and Yoon allowed Korea to end this year’s Asiad with five medals in soft tennis in total — one gold and four bronze medals.

Soft tennis is like tennis, but the match is played with a different ball and on a smaller court. For singles matches, the court is 8.23 meters wide and 23.77 meters long and for doubles matches, the court gets slightly wider, with a 10.97-meter baseline.

It shares the same rules as regular tennis — a player scores when the opposing side fails to return the ball before it bounces twice.

Matches can get intense, particularly in doubles matches where each team has more opportunities to make creative plays, and against national teams like Japan and Chinese Taipei, also podium regulars alongside Korea.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN AND MARY YANG [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]