(LEAD) (Asiad) S. Korea secures bronze medals in men's, women's team events in soft tennis

NAGOYA, Japan, Sept. 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has guaranteed itself at least bronze medals in the men's and women's team events in soft tennis at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Friday.

Both teams reached the semifinals of their events on Friday at Higashiyama Park Tennis Center in Nagoya.

There are no bronze medal matches in soft tennis, where both losing teams in the semifinals will receive bronze.

The soft tennis teams are the first South Korean athletes to secure medals at this year's Asian Games.

Both teams will take on Chinese Taipei in the semifinals Sunday, the day after the opening ceremony. The finals are also Sunday.

On Friday, the women's team of Kim Han-sul, Kim Yeon-hwa, Lee Su-jin, Eom Ye-jin and Hwang Jeong-mi finished second in the group phase behind Japan to book a spot in the semifinals.

South Korea lost to Japan 3-0 in its first match, dropping two doubles and one singles match. Then South Korea beat Cambodia and Pakistan by the identical scores of 3-0.

The men's team, featuring Kim Hyun-woo, Lee Haneul, Kim Jin-woong, Lee Hyun-gwon and Park Jae-kyu, enjoyed wins over Nepal and Indonesia in the group stage on Friday, before beating the Philippines in the quarterfinals.

Soft tennis made its Asian Games debut in 1994, and South Korea leads the all-time medal table with 26 gold medals, 15 silver medals and 20 bronze medals. The country has won at least one soft tennis gold at every edition of the Asian Games since 1994.