Quick Facts
Biography
Lee Hyun-il (Korean: 이현일, born April 17, 1980 in Seoul) is a male badminton player from South Korea.
Career
2002 Asian Games
Lee competed in the 2002 Asian Games where he showed signs of promise as an ace singles player for Team Korea. In the men's team event, Lee dominated the opponents he faced in the tourney, completing all three matches less than 30 minutes and allowing only seven points in the semifinals and eight in the final. Team Korea eventually won their first men's team gold medal since 1986 when Park Joo-bong and Kim Moon-soo led the team.
| 2002 Asian Games – Men's Team | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Round | Result | Score | Opponents |
| October 6 | Quarterfinal | Win | 15–11, 15–7 |  Hidetaka Yamada |
| October 7 | Semifinal | Win | 15–5, 15–2 |  Lee Tsuen Seng |
| October 9 | Final | Win | 15–3, 15–5 |  Rony Agustinus |
2003 Sudirman Cup
At the 2003 Sudirman Cup held in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Lee helped his team to win its third Sudirman Cup title, winning all three singles matches. Though lots of great doubles players from South Korea had won numerous international competitions, Team Korea had always struggled to win the Thomas and Sudirman Cup competitions due to the lack of top men's singles players. However, Lee, the winner of the 2003 Swiss Open, showed spectacular performances through the Sudirman Cup tourney, not dropping a single set. In the semifinal, Lee defeated 2001 World Championship runner-up and 2001 All England Open champion Peter Gade 2-0, which led his team to a 3-2 victory over Denmark. Lee won another 2-0 upset victory over world number one ranked Chen Hong in Game 1 of the South Korea's final team event against China.
| 2003 Sudirman Cup | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Round | Result | Score | Opponents |
| March 18 | Group 1A | Win | 15–5, 15–5 |  Rasmus Wengberg |
| March 22 | Semifinal | Win | 15–9, 15–12 |  Peter Gade |
| March 23 | Final | Win | 15–10, 15–12 |  Chen Hong |
2004 Olympics
Lee competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, which was his first Olympic appearance. Lee easily defeated Stuart Brehaut of Australia in the first round. However, he was surprisingly eliminated in the second round by Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand.
2006
At the 2006 IBF World Championships held in Madrid, Spain, Lee captured his first world championship medal in the men's singles event. He defeated Chetan Anand, Jan Fröhlich, Eric Pang and Chen Jin before losing to Bao Chunlai of China in the semifinals.
| 2006 World Championships – Men's Singles | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Round | Result | Score | Opponents |
| September 18 | First Rd | Win | 21-18, 18-21, 21-10 |  Chetan Anand |
| September 19 | Second Rd | Win | 21-10, 21-4 |  Jan Fröhlich |
| September 20 | Third Rd | Win | 21-16, 21-6 |  Eric Pang |
| September 21 | Quarterfinal | Win | 21-14, 19-21, 21-12 | Chen Jin |
| September 22 | Semifinal | Loss | 15–21, 19-21 | Bao Chunlai |
2008 Olympics
In 2008, after defeating top rank players Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei in Korea Open, he participated in the Beijing Olympics again, and managed to reach semi-finals before being defeated by world number 1, Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia, then being beaten by Chen Jin of China in the bronze-medal playoff.
Retirement and comeback
After the 2008 Olympics, Lee announced his retirement from international badminton and only competed in national competitions. However, in April 2010 he came out of retirement after much persuasion from the coach and teammates to fill the void of singles players in the Team Korea squad. In May 2010, Lee participated in the 2010 Thomas Cup and played in two singles matches.
2012 Summer Olympics
Lee lost to Chinese Chen Long in the badminton bronze-medal playoff on August 5, 2012.
Titles
Singles
| Outcome | Event | Year | Venue | Opponent in the final | Score in the final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympics | |||||
| 4 | Singles | 2012 |  London, United Kingdom | Chen Long | 12-21, 21-15, 15-21 |
| 4 | Singles | 2008 | Beijing, China | Chen Jin | 16-21, 21-12, 14-21 |
| World Championships | |||||
| 3 | Singles | 2006 |  Madrid, Spain | ||
| Asian Games | |||||
| 3 | Singles | 2006 |  Doha, Qatar | ||
| 2 | Singles | 2002 |  Busan, Korea | Taufik Hidayat | 7-15, 9-15 |
| All England Open | |||||
| 2 | Singles | 2006 |  Birmingham, England | Lin Dan | 7-15, 7-15 |
| 3 | Singles | 2012 | Birmingham, England | ||
| Other International Tournaments | |||||
| 1 | Singles | 2011 |  Macau Open | Du Pengyu | 17-21, 21-11, 21-18 |
| 1 | Singles | 2008 |  German Open | Sho Sasaki | 22-20, 21-5 |
| 1 | Singles | 2008 | Korea Open | Lin Dan | 4-21, 23-21, 25-23 |
| 1 | Singles | 2005 |  Chinese Taipei Open | Shon Seung-mo | 15-13, 15-6 |
| 1 | Singles | 2005 | Indonesia Open |  Boonsak Ponsana | 15-10, 15-3 |
| 1 | Singles | 2003 | German Open | Lin Dan | 15-4, 15-4 |
| 1 | Singles | 2003 | Dutch Open | Muhd Hafiz B Hashim | 5-15, 15-8, 15-6 |
| 1 | Singles | 2003 |  Swiss Open | Anders Boesen | 15-10, 15-2 |
| 1 | Singles | 2002 | Japan Open | Xia Xuanze | 8-7, 7-5, 0-7 |
| 1 | Singles | 2001 |  US Open | Kenneth Jonassen | 6-8, 7-2, 7-2 |