The lone South Korean woman competing in badminton singles at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics got knocked out of the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Sung Ji-hyun was no match against world No. 1 Carolina Marin, who dispatched the seventh-ranked South Korean 2-0 (21-12, 21-16).
Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald
Sung dropped to 1-6 all-time against Marin.
Sung was the only South Korean alive in the quarterfinals in the women's singles.
Sung went down 6-1 to start the first game, but fought back to make it 8-6 for Marin.
The two traded points for a bit until Marin went from nursing a
10-8 lead to enjoying a 16-9 cushion.
Marin then cruised to a 21-12 game victory. She was relentless with her smashes and kept so much pressure on Sung that the South Korean barely had a chance to mount counterattacks.
Marin kept the pedal to the metal in the second game, jumping out to a 8-0 lead with a slew of her winners and Sung's unforced errors.
Trailing 15-7, Sung showed some life with four straight points.
She got it to 18-13 but ran out of gas, as Marin closed her out 21-16.
South Korea is in danger of leaving Rio without a badminton medal.
On the men's side, Son Wan-ho has reached the final eight, but the world No. 8 will face the second-ranked Chen Long of China in Wednesday's match. Son is 4-9 all-time against Chen.
In the doubles, world No. 5 Jung Kyung-eun and Shin Seung-chan are in the bronze medal contest, after losing in the semifinals earlier Tuesday. They will face world No. 2 pair from China, Tang Yuanting and Yu Yang, who beat the South Koreans in their only previous meeting in April this year.
Four other pairs -- two in men's doubles, one in women's doubles and one in mixed doubles -- all lost in the quarterfinals. (Yonhap)
