Korea crush Germany 3-0 for women's team table tennis bronze

Korea carried their momentum from their women’s doubles win to secure their spot on the podium in two quick singles matches, winning both 3-0.

Korea's Shin Yu-bin, left and Jeon Ji-hee celebrate a winning point during their doubles round in the team bronze medal match against Germany. [AFP/YONHAP]

Korea beat Germany 3-0 in the women’s team table tennis bronze medal match at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, bringing home the nation’s second medal in the sport from this year’s Games.

Korea carried their momentum from their women’s doubles win into their next two singles rounds, winning both 3-0 to secure their spot on the podium.

Shin Yu-bin was involved in both efforts, reaching the podium for a second time in Paris after taking bronze in the mixed doubles last week.

The start of the bronze medal match at the South Paris Arena in Paris was perhaps the most stressful part.

Korea's Shin and Jeon Ji-hee, 31, were leading Germany by two in the doubles match, but Yuan Wan and Xiaona Shan pulled back two straight wins to level things up, both teams fighting to win the matchpoint.

Germany's Yuan Wan, left, returns the ball as Xiaona Shan reacts during their women's table tennis doubles match in the team bronze medal contest against Korea at the Paris Olympics on Saturday in Paris. [AFP/YONHAP]

Korea held on, beating Germany 3-2 in a comeback Game 5 victory for the first point of the medal round.

Team table tennis matches begin with a doubles round, followed by singles matches in a best-of-five format. Each match also runs best-of-five, and the first side to score 11 points wins a game. If a game is tied 10-10, the first player to score two straight points wins.

Korea’s Lee Eun-hye, the only first-time Olympian of the women's team, was up against Germany’s Annett Kaufmann in the first singles match. Lee, 29, won it 3-0, notching her biggest margin of victory in Game 3, winning it 11-2.

Korea's Lee Eun-hye plays against Germany's Annett Kaufmann during the women's bronze medal team table tennis match at the Paris Olympics on Saturday in Paris. [AP/YONHAP]

And then Jeon, who competed at both the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2016 Rio Olympics, was up again, winning her singles match 3-0 — 11-6, 11-6, 11-6 — to seal the Korean women's table tennis team's win and clinch her first-ever Olympic medal.

Korea's Jeon Ji-hee plays against Germany's Shan Xiaona during the women's bronze medal team table tennis match at the Paris Olympics in Paris on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Saturday’s win brought Shin her second medal of the Games. She earlier partnered with Lim Jong-hoon to win bronze in the mixed doubles and ended a 12-year Olympic table tennis drought for the Korean national team.

It was also a bit of redemption for Shin, who came in fourth in the women’s singles after losing her bronze medal match to Japan's Hina Hayata 4-2.

The Korean men's team earlier lost 3-0 to China in a tough quarterfinal draw before the women's team rounded out the table tennis schedule.

Korea end the Paris Olympics with two table tennis medals, both bronze.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]