Korea’s top men’s doubles players Lee Yong Dae and Ko Sung Hyun are both expected to be back competing in mixed doubles competition in the near future, according to a report late last week from Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. Beginning this week, Ko Sung Hyun will already be participating in two tournaments in mixed doubles, along with current women’s doubles world #7 Kim Ha Na. This is Ko’s first outing in mixed doubles since last year’s Singapore Open.
For 2008 Olympic mixed doubles gold medallist Lee Yong Dae, however, a suitable partner has yet to be selected. Both he and Ko have been focussing on men’s doubles since the London Olympics last summer. In fact, Kim Ha Na has gone the longest without a mixed doubles outing. However, while her last such tournament was the Malaysia Open in January 2012, she also had a five-month hiatus from women’s doubles following the Olympics.
Korea’s top-ranking active mixed pair, currently, is Shin Baek Cheol and Jang Ye Na. Currently at #37 in the world rankings, both are still nominally in the top 20 with their former partners. Jang was left partnerless when Yoo Yeon Seong began his military service in late December. Eom played the first two Superseries tournaments of the year with Shin before the 2010 Asian Games gold medallist was paired with Jang, with whom he promptly won the German Open title.
New Korean National Team Head Coach Lee Deuk Choon told Yonhap that Shin and Jang would be kept together and that mixed partners would be found for Lee and Ko. As for candidates to partner Lee Yong Dae, the list is theoretically quite long, considering that the last time he was moved back into mixed doubles, he was paired with Ha Jung Eun, who at the time was playing with Ko Sung Hyun as Korea’s top mixed pair.
Eom Hye Won and Choi Hye In have been kept at home, even from women’s doubles, as Jang Ye Na has partnered Kim So Young this month. Eom, Choi, and Kim have all seen sporadic mixed success with other partners over the past year, as have Jung Kyung Eun and Shin Seung Chan. Whoever ends up as his new partner, it will be the first time – apart from one event in 2011 – that Lee Yong Dae has partnered a younger player in mixed since his junior pairing with Yoo Hyun Young in 2006.
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