PETALING JAYA: Park Joo-bong has made an honest admission about South Korea’s Thomas Cup Finals prospects – their singles line-up is their weakest in the recent series.
To make matters worse, they are without Kang Min-hyuk, who has missed out due to injury.
Despite the odds stacked against them at the Thomas Cup, Joo-bong has been encouraged by the players’ determination and the changes made within the set-up.
“This is my first time handling South Korea at the Thomas Cup Finals and I know our singles standard has dropped,” said Joo-bong. “However, we have made changes in our coaching line-up and training set-up.”
There have already been signs of progress.
South Korea, led by Yoo Tae-bin, finished with a bronze medal at the Badminton Asia Team Championships in Qingdao last month after going down 1-3 to China in the semi-finals.
World No. 66 Tae-bin was their only point-winner in that tie and is expected to spearhead the singles challenge in Horsens.
And in the Asian Championships, South Korea swept three titles.
“On paper, it will be tough for us to get out of the group stage,” Joo-bong admitted.
“We have no choice but to win both our doubles matches and hope one of the singles can deliver a point.”
South Korea will rely heavily on world No. 1 pair Kim Won-ho-Seo Seung-jae, while the second doubles point could come from combinations involving Jin Yong, Lee Jong-min or Ki Dong-ju.
Drawn in Group C with Denmark, Taiwan and Sweden, Joo-bong is wary of the rising threat from Taiwan.
“Taiwan have improved so much and they will be a big challenge too,” he said.
Asked if any doubles players could step in for singles duty, Joo-bong dismissed the idea.
“Not in this team. The game has evolved so much – it’s better for one player to focus on one event,” he said.
The former great himself competed in both singles and doubles during his playing days, even beating China’s Zhao Jianhua in the Asian Games team event and facing legends like Indonesia’s Rudy Hartono and Icuk Sugiarto.
“I also played against Misbun Sidek and lost to him in the Taiwan Open final in 1987,” said Joo-bong.
“Because I played both events before, I can guide players in singles and doubles. But nowadays, with the intensity of the game, it’s much tougher to compete in two events.”
Currently, among the few still doubling up are France’s Popov brothers, Christo and Toma Junior, at the Finals.
