Chae Yoo Jung (now Chae Yu Jung) is a left-handed mixed doubles specialist (who also plays level doubles). She shot into the limelight when she won the deciding match of the 2017 Sudirman Cup final, but previously had some success playing with Shin Baek Cheol (narrowly missing out on Olympic qualification). After Shin Baek Cheol left, she resumed her youth partnership with Choi Sol Gyu, with whom she achieved Sudirman Cup success. Her playing style is focused on net play and interceptions, which makes her exciting to watch. Recently she's been playing with Seo Sung Jae, but it's not clear how long term the partnership will be; they'll need some results at bigger tournaments before any conclusions can be reached. That said, I feel like her partnership with Seo Sung Jae is more effective (than Choi Sol Gyu) for 2 reasons: - Seo Sung Jae has a more effective attack - They seem to execute more varied styles of play 2 consecutive finals is also a good start to their partnership, even if they're only New Zealand and Australia. That said, an absence of top pairs means they haven't been put through a real test yet.
Depending on your system of reckoning, Chae's age might not match your calculations. According to western age conventions, she was only 18 at that time, as she was born in the spring of 1995 and had already had her birthday by the time this was filmed in 2013. I'm sure many of you are familiar with this system of being one year old upon emerging from the womb and then turning age 2 on the next New Year's Day. So many of those national team players are no longer on the team. At the time, Chae was already two-time Asian Junior Champion in mixed but her World Junior titles and her first Grand Prix title were a few months later.
Yes, there were a couple of years there where you had Korean high school players winning domestic and international events in all 3 disciplines and all 3 have faded into obscurity: Choi Hye In, Kang Ji Wook, and the year before was Choi Young Woo. Choi Hye In won the triple at the German Junior and Kang Ji Wook would have the same year if it hadn't been for Viktor Axelsen. Since then, it seems the girls have been much more specialized in singles or doubles. Baek Ha Na was second seed domestically this week in singles but didn't even enter singles at the Asian or World Juniors last year, despite being one of the best high school singles players in the country. In contrast, Choi Sol Gyu and Seo Seung Jae kept playing singles right up to the end of high school. Chae Yoo Jung was a decent singles player when she started high school but seemed to have completely specialized by the time she finished. Being on the national team as a doubles player might be one reason for that. Same might apply to Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan, who were both top singles players but began specializing in doubles before finishing high school.
Really like chae yoo jung after watching her performance yesterday, she really is a special player. challenging huang yaqiong outthere while also withstand the powerful attack of zheng siwei. her partner seo sj need to improve though, clearly the weak link in the partnership. Looking at the tournament schedule, pretty dissapointed they didn't play in fuzhou and hongkong open, they've been doing well lately...always go to the sf or final.
I guess they compete in Korea Master? Hope they can win it though A title will help boosting their confidence
Seo and Choi Sol Gyu were pulled out of China and Hong Kong and entered in the Norwegian International Series. It seems someone has finally realized they need to play some smaller tournaments if they want that pair to get off the reserve lists eventually. They are likely hoping this pair will be able to play Super 500 and above regularly by the beginning of next year. Seo and Chae are already able to qualify for Super 750 main draws. The French Open should see them into the top 20 or close to it. There is no way they could have qualified for Guangzhou, however, except for winning 3 more finals. In hindsight, Seo and Choi could have played Hong Kong and got at least 2500 points but as you mentioned, winning a small tournament can have its own value, too. The Korea Masters will not be a walk in the park, though, with a few very strong XD pairs from Indonesia plus Lu Kai, Lee Chun Hei, and Tontowi Ahmad in new pairings, not to mention Ko Sung Hyun and Eom Hye Won.
Is chae still struggling to find her form after the injury ? seo/chae got beaten so badly by yuta/arisa last week, then lose again today against the english pair.
She appears on the M&Q lists for Germany and the All England. The notional rankings for all four Korean mixed pairs put them way down on the reserve lists, though.
Well, you can see from the M&Q lists that Chae was entered with Kim Young Hyuk, with whom she played 3 matches in Bali last year. Seo is entered, too, in mixed for both with Kim Hye Jeong but in MD, he might actually get to play since he and Choi Sol Gyu have been entered in the All England. Entered with Kim in XD and with Kang Min Hyuk in MD, Seo won't play in Germany, though, barring another whole team withdrawal or some similar catastrophe.
