‘Badminton Empress’ Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance) defeated China’s badminton star Wang Zhiyi in the finals of the World Tour Finals, the last tournament of the year, and took the top spot.
This year, they finally achieved the feat of winning their 11th international competition.
Ahn Se-young, who was already ranked No. 1 in the world, wrote a page in badminton history by regaining the top spot after four years and breaking various records in the World Tour Finals, a ‘battle of kings’ where world-ranked players gather to determine superiority or inferiority.
Ahn Se-young won the tournament by defeating world No. 2 Wang Zhiyi (China) with a game score of 2-1 (21-13 18-21 21-10) in the final of the 2025 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Final held at the Olympic Sports Center in Hangzhou, China on the 21st (Korean time).
Ahn Se-young, who participated in 15 competitions this season, set a new record for the most wins in a single season in women’s singles by lifting 11 championship trophies.
Ahn Se-young has already won 10 times this year, breaking her own record (9 times) in 2023, and has once again written history by rising to the top of the World Tour Finals, the last competition of this season and a competition held by the world’s strongest players.
Se-young Ahn previously won 10 international competitions, including three Super 1000 series (Malaysia Open, All England Open, Indonesia Open), five Super 750 series (India Open, Japan Open, China Masters, Denmark Open, French Open), Australian Open (Super 500), and Orleans Masters (Super 300).
He then achieved his 11th win of the year at the World Tour Finals, with a total prize money of $3 million.
In addition, Ahn Se-young tied the record for the most wins in a single season across all badminton events, standing shoulder to shoulder with Kento Momota (Japan)’s 11 wins in the men’s division in 2019.
Ahn Se-young, who passed the group stage with all wins (3 wins), met her ‘natural enemy’ Akane Yamaguchi (Japan, world No. 3), who was also her opponent in the third game of the group stage, in the semifinals and defeated Yamaguchi 2-0 (21-15 21-12) in 38 minutes to advance to the finals.
Ahn Se-young seemed to be having a hard time in the game, allowing a comeback early in the first game against Wang Zhiyi, who played with one-sided support from the home fans, but he regained the pace and overturned the score by showing his strength by scoring 8 consecutive points at 4-8. After that, they completely lost the momentum and won the first game 21-13.
In the first game, Ahn Se-young’s solid play based on his strong stamina shone.
As the game lengthened, Wang Ziyi showed signs of loss of strength, while Ahn Se-young continued to work steadily from the beginning to the end of the game and tormented Wang Ziyi. Ahn Se-young’s attack, hitting a shuttlecock in a course that caught Wang Ziyi off guard when Wang Ziyi was shaking, was also excellent.
Wang Ziyi also had no intention of backing down easily.
Wang Ziyi went on the offensive from the beginning of the second game and took the lead, maintaining the score gap with Ahn Se-young by 3 to 4 points. Wang Ziyi was so fierce that even An Se-young of the world made mistakes.
Ahn Se-young narrowed the score from 4-8 to 7-8, and after Wang Ziyi had run away to 7-10, she caught up to 10-10 and eventually turned the score around to 11-10, but a series of mistakes resulted in a comeback to Wang Ziyi. Wang Zhiyi, who only scored 13 points in one game, continued to score and beat Ahn Se-young.
In the end, Game 2 ended at 21-18 when Ahn Se-young’s shuttlecock cleared from Wang Zhiyi’s match point ended up in the net. I returned to Wang Ziyi.
The three games were played in an atmosphere where Ahn Se-young, who is strong in long-term games based on stamina and defense, had the upper hand.
Ahn Se-young, who took the early lead, played the game by gradually increasing the score gap by playing to relieve Wang Ziyi. Wang Ziyi, whose stamina was worn out, repeatedly made mistakes due to Ahn Se-young’s skillful game management, and thanks to this, Ahn Se-young was able to lead the game with relative ease, widening the score to 11-6.
Ahn Se-young, who took control of the game from this point on, easily led the game to 13-6. Another mistake by Wang Ziyi resulted in the score between the two players reaching 18-7 at one point.
Ahn Se-young reached the match point first. During the 3rd game, I had a cramp that didn’t go away, so the game was stopped for a while at 20-10, and I even had to suffer the bad news of limping my left leg, but it wasn’t a problem.
Ahn Se-young, who returned to the court with a frown on her face, showed concentration and eventually won a point in the very next rally. With a 21-10 win, he finished the season with a historic record of winning the most wins in a single season and winning the World Tour Finals.
With her win that day, Ahn Se-young added $240,000 in prize money, making her name in history as the first player in badminton history to exceed $1 million in total prize money in a single season.
Recently, the domestic and international badminton world is considering Ahn Se-young as the greatest player in badminton history and a strong candidate to be named ‘GOAT (Greatest of All Times).’ By achieving 11 wins this year, he has proven himself to be on the path to becoming ‘GOAT (Greatest of All Times)’.
Ahn Se-young returns to Korea on the 22nd.
Photo = Yonhap News
