Women’s Tennis Event Opens Door to Men

The nation’s oldest sports event for women, the National Women’s Soft Tennis Competition, will open its door to male athletes for the first time in history this year. The 84th Dong-A Ilbo National Soft Tennis Competition—hosted by Dong-A Ilbo under the management of the Korea Soft Tennis Association and Anseong City—will be held on May 10 at the soft tennis court of Anseong Sports Complex. Atop its legacy of laying the brickwork for women’s sports in Korea, the historical event newly installed men’s division this year, laying claim to the much deserved respect it gets as one of the nation’s major sports events.

Many look forward to seeing if Nonghyup can continue its prowess by winning the title for the third time this year. Nonghyup had achieved a three-year sweep in the year 2000. The team remains confident of defending its title with its trusty pool of athletes. Anseong City, the home team and a long-time rival of Nonghyup, vows payback for the losses in past three years. Anseong City has beaten Nonghyup and won the title of Chairman’s Cup game held in March.

In individual events, the match between Nonghyup’s Kim Ji-eun and Anseong City’s Kim Gyeong-ryeon draws the most attention. Kim Ji-eun, who was trained in Japan, aims to take back the champion’s title she had won two years ago. Kim Gyeong-ryeon, who swept three events in the Chairman’s Cup, now dreams of six consecutive doubles match wins.

In the men’s corporate division, Dalseong County, Mungyeong City, and Icheon City are the strongest candidates for this year’s championship.

The five-day event will feature a total of eight female divisions, which include elementary, middle school, high school, college, general adult, women, women beginners; and a men’s general adult division. Fifty-three teams and four hundred participants will compete in this year’s event. The competition will especially be fierce this year since it functions as a process to select the national talents who will participate in the 2006 Doha Asian Games.

Japan, a traditional soft tennis powerhouse, will send its delegation comprised of the Sun Life women’s corporate team and Shujitsu Middle School students to show good will and friendship between the two countries.

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com