Park Yeong-hee Reclaims Tennis Glory Days

Park Yeong-hee (29, Daegu Bank) has the longest career as a female tennis player in Korea. Close to 30 years old, she plays like she is in her prime.

Paired with Shin Seon-mi, Park beat the Lee Ju-ri & Kim Ae-gyeong duo 4-3 in the female’s doubles final of the 85th Dong-A National Tennis Championship held at the Citizens Tennis Court in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province on May 11.

Park Yeong-hee won two gold medals at the 2002 Busan Asian Games. Then a year later in 2003, for the first time in the history of the tennis championship organized by this newspaper, she won three singles matches. She later played professionally for Sun Life in Japan from 2004 until November of last year. She went back, however, to Daegu Bank, which had “begged” her to come back as it was doing poorly, as a player and coach, and reclaimed her glory days by taking home the gold in the women’s doubles.

In the men’s doubles, the Lee Soo-yeol & Yoo Yeon-sang (Dalseong County Office) pair won 4-1 against Hah Jong-hoon and Kim Nan-hoon (Changnyeong County Office). Moon Dae-yong (Mungyeong Middle School) who led in the team standings despite his impaired vision, also won in the doubles to record two victories.

Winners:

Singles Boys’ Middle School Group: Gwak Min-uk (Anseong Middle School); Girls’ Middle School Group: Park Gyeong-rahn (Mungyeong Seo Middle School); Girls’ High School Group: Kang So-bin (Anseong Girls’ High); Male College Group: Cho Seung-hee (Kangwon University); Male Professional Group: Shin Yoon-soo (Changnyeong County Office); Female Professional Group: Park Sang-ye (Okcheon County Office); Double; Boys’ High School Group: Kim Byeong-guk & Jeong Woo-yong (Daegu Natural Science High School); Girls’ High School Group: Kim Bo-mi-Lee, Seul-bi (Anseong Girls’ High School); Male College Group: Yoo Yeong-seon & Nam Hyo-joo (Chungbuk University); Male Professional Group: Lee Soo-yeol & Yoo Yeon-sang (Dalseong County Office); Female Professional Group: Park Yeong-hee & Shin Seon-mi (Daegu Bank)

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