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S. Korean table tennis player takes Belgium Open title

September 14, 2015
Seo Hyo-won (Yonhap)

Seo Hyo-won (Yonhap)

By Nam Hyun-woo

South Korea’s table tennis star Seo Hyo-won won her third International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour event, winning the Belgium Open women’s singles.

At the final in de Haan, Belgium, on Saturday, Seo clinched a 4-3 (15-13, 8-11, 10-12, 7-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-9) win over No. 7 Feng Tianwei of Singapore. The win came after the 28-year-old won the Korea Open and the Polish Open in 2013 and raised her world rankings to No. 13 from No. 15.

This raised Seo’s chance of being among the top 16 players who will be invited to compete at the 2015 ITTF World Tour Grand Finals slated for Dec. 10-13 in Lisbon, Portugal.

Facing the Singaporean, Seo had a rough match. Seo claimed the first set after a series of deuces, but allowed Feng to clinch three straight sets. Cornered Seo, however, did not lose her concentration and claimed the fourth set comfortably. Picking up the momentum, she brushed off Feng’s pursuit in the seventh set, completing an upset victory.

Another South Korean Choi Hyo-joo, who was beaten by Feng in the semifinals, also saw her world rankings climb two places from No. 18 to No. 16. Jeon Ji-hee, who won the Czech Open women’s doubles with Yang Ha-eun last month, also sits in ninth place in the world rankings.