SON Wan Ho

Son Wan Ho is a South Korean badminton player. He was born on 17 May 1988 in Changwon district in South Korea.

Background

In South Korea badminton was becoming popular around the ’80s and therefore was popular among the locals. Son developed an interest for badminton at an early age when his teacher introduced him to the sport when he was in elementary school. He also holds his bachelor’s degree from Inha University in Incheon. Son’s playing style is more defensive and is known for handling high speed smashes from his opponents with ease.

Debut

The South Korean’s debut was in 2007 in the Osaka international tournament sanctioned by the BWF under an international series where Son gave a stellar performance to reach the final. He faced Lee Cheol-ho who was his fellow Korean participant. After a tough fight Son lost in the final and became the runner-up which would become the foundation to a successful career

Rise to glory

Son competed in the 2010 Taipei open and came in at second losing to the Indonesian Simon Santoso in the final, though it was a loss it was his first major result in international events. Another major sporting achievement was beating Lee Chong Wei(then world number 1) in 2012 in the Indian Open to win his first world super series title. He was very successful in the year 2013 as went on to win the Vietnam open, Macau open and the Chinese Taipei open by beating Tan Chun Seang of Malaysia, Hsueh Hsuan-Yi of Taiwan and Nguyễn Tiến Minh of Vietnam respectively in that order. He has six career titles and was ranked number 1 in the year 2017.

Low points

Son’s major low point was when he injured his leg during training. He was seeded at 4th in the world rankings at that time. He had to withdraw from the World Badminton Championship in 2018 at Nanjing due to this injury. In addition, previously he had also faced another major injury which was a shin stress fracture forcing him to take a break for a whole year. He has also had no success in the Olympics failing to win a medal for his country throughout his career at the Olympics giving the critics a chance to blame his age as a reason for his failures.

Club Career

The Korean started his club career at the Gimcheon City Hall Badminton Team. This got him a ticket into the Asian Junior Championships held at Jakarta in 2005. He went to win the gold and eventually securing a place in the South Korean badminton team in 2006.

Form

Son Wan Ho is currently ranked at number six in the worldwide rankings. He is currently in excellent form. He won the gold in 2018 at the Korea masters by beating Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia. He also won another gold the same year by defeating Kenta Nishimoto of Japan. The Korean is working hard to recover from his injury and is also working towards his lifelong ambition to win an Olympic medal for his country which he will be hoping to do so in the 2020 Summer Olympics at Tokyo, Japan.