Korea and Japan add a few young faces for 2020 national teams

Korea and Japan named their national teams for 2020 this past week, with minimal turnover, but a few veterans were replaced with fresh faces.

Korea and Japan both unveiled their new national team rosters for 2020 in the past week.  Korea’s came at the end of a national team tryout event, while Japan’s is as always based on the results of the All Nippon Championships.  Both teams are now without some key veterans but have welcomed some new talent.  The highest-profile of them would have to be Thailand Open winners Shiho Tanaka / Koharu Yonemoto, but Korea also had to let go of one of its 2016 Olympians, Lee Dong Keun.

Korea ran it’s national team tryouts from December 18th to 23rd in Jecheon City.  A total of 12 players were exempted from the process for being tentatively qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.  The singles selections were made using a straightforward round-robin tournament.  With only 5 spots up for grabs, it was very competitive for the ladies and former Macau Open runner-up Kim Hyo Min was unable to make the cut.  3rd in a 3-way tie for the lead in her group, she lost her playoff against the other group’s 3rd shuttler, Lee Se Yeon.

It will instead be the first time on the national team for Kim Joo Eun.  The 22-year-old has only played one international senior match in her career.  Her only loss in the tryouts was to Kim Hyo Min, who struggled this year but who, at #39 in the world, is still ranked higher than the five shuttlers who were chosen ahead of her.

In the men’s singles trials, 2018 U.S. Open winner Lee Dong Keun pulled out at the last minute and two younger players ended up being selected to replace the 29-year-old.  Woo Seung Hoon (pictured right) and Kim Joo Wan will thus get their first chance as part of the Korean national squad.

Overall, the Korean team make-up changed from a 20-20 split to 22 men and 18 women.  The women’s doubles squad stayed the same as last year, minus 2 of its 3 youngest players.  Meanwhile, the men’s team dropped veteran Chung Eui Seok and youngster Choi Hyuk Gyun, who played a combined 4 international tournaments last year.

In place of these two are four first-time national team members.  The youngest of them is Ki Dong Ju (pictured top), a German Junior winner last year, who reached the quarter-finals at the Asian Juniors this year with Kim Joon Young, who was also selected.  Shin Tae Yang and Choi Hyun Beom were the other two new editions.

The complete 2020 Korean national team roster is shown below.  Players who were exempt from the tryout process are shown in italics, while new national team members are shown in bold green.

Team Japan underwent less change, at least in terms of the A team.  The major differences involve veterans who have left the national team.  Foremost among them are Shiho Tanaka / Koharu Yonemoto.  The former world #4 have not competed internationally since they won the Thailand Open in early August and they did not contest the All Nippon Championships earlier this month.  They have been replaced on the national A team by Korea Masters winners Chiharu Shida / Nami Matsuyama (pictured left, with Matsutomo/Takahashi).

Also leaving both the national A and B teams were Takuto Inoue / Yuki Kaneko.  The world #24 were beaten in the All Nippon quarter-finals by Akira Koga / Taichi Saito.  The world #32 have taken Inoue/Kaneko’s place as the 4th pair on the A team.  The final A team change saw Koki Watanabe taking over the spot left available by the departure of Kazumasa Sakai, but both members of Japan’s only dedicated mixed partnership from this year – Kohei Gondo Ayane Kurihara – have also both moved on.

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Listed below are Japan’s national B team players:

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