Korea knocked out of women's badminton doubles by China, Malaysia

Both of Korea's women's doubles teams lost in the quarterfinals Thursday, ending their run at the Paris Olympics.

Korea's Baek Ha-na, front, plays a shot in the women's doubles badminton quarterfinal match against China during the Paris Olympics at Porte de la Chapelle Arena in Paris on Thursday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Korean badminton players Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee lost 2-0 to China’s Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning in the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the Paris Olympics on Thursday, ending Korea’s chance to win a medal in the doubles event.

The match at La Chapelle Arena Court 1 in Paris was one-sided from the start. The Korean duo lost the first game 21-9.

In badminton, all singles and doubles matches are the best-of-three games. The first side to score 21 points wins a game. If the score is tied 20-20, the first side to score two points in a row wins the game. If the score reaches 29-29, the first team to score 30 wins the game.

Baek and Lee failed to tie the score 20-20 in the second game and lost it 21-13 for a 2-0 loss.

The loss ends the duo’s run in the doubles event. Their failure also means Korea will not medal in the event at this year's Game.

Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-young, the other Korean women’s doubles team, also exited the quarterfinals after a loss to Malaysia earlier in the day. Kim and Kong won a bronze medal in the doubles event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Fellow Korean badminton players in other events, like An Se-young in the women’s singles and Kang Min-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae in the men’s doubles, are still in the Games as of press time Thursday.

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