Ahn Se-young: Badminton King of Kings Semifinals & 11th Win

[서울=뉴시스] Reporter Park Yoon-seo and Ha Geun-soo = ‘Shuttlecock Empress’ Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance) won a thrilling comeback victory over her ‘old enemy’ Akane Yamaguchi (Japan), ranked first in her group, and advanced to the semifinals of the King of Kings.

Ahn Se-young, ranked No. 1 in the world, defeated Yamaguchi, ranked No. 3 in the world, 2-1 (14-21 21-5 21-14) in the third match of Group A of the women’s singles of the 2025 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals held at the Olympic Sports Center in Hangzhou, China on the 19th.

Ahn Se-young, who had previously defeated Putri Kusuma Wardani (Indonesia) and Tomoka Miyazaki (Japan) to advance to the semifinals, also defeated Yamaguchi to secure first place in the group. Yamaguchi, with 2 wins and 1 loss, advanced to the semifinals in second place.

Ahn Se-young led 9-5 from the beginning of the first game, but struggled against Yamaguchi’s offensive and allowed the score to come back to 11-16.

After that, they trailed 14-17, but gave up 4 points in a row to give up the first game.

Ahn Se-young, who allowed only 5 points in the 2nd game and achieved balance by completely defeating Yamaguchi, showed an upward curve in the 3rd game as well.

Ahn Se-young, who was slightly ahead at 15-14, blocked Yamaguchi’s smash with stable defense and confirmed the victory by demonstrating his strength by scoring six consecutive points.

The World Tour Finals is a ‘King of Kings’ competition where the best players compete in five events organized by BWF this year, including men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. The top eight players (groups) in total World Tour points participated in each event.

Players are divided into groups A and B of four and compete in the group stage, and the first and second place players from each group advance to the semifinals and aim for the championship.

Se-young Ahn collected 10 championship trophies this year, breaking the record for most wins (9 wins) in women’s singles in a single season that she set in 2023.

If he reaches the top in this competition, he will tie the record of most wins (11 wins) in a single season set by Japan’s Kento Momota (men’s singles) in 2019.

On the same day, the men’s doubles world No. 1 pair of Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae (Samsung Life Insurance) defeated the world’s No. 4 pair Man Wei Chong and Kaiun Ti (Malaysia) 2-1 (25-23 14-21 21-19) in the third match of the men’s doubles group A.

Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae, who advanced to the semifinals as first place in Group A, will attempt to win their 11th championship this year, just like Ahn Se-young.

The world’s 7th ranked women’s doubles team, Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee (Incheon International Airport), defeated the world’s 9th ranked pair, Hsieh Feishan and Hong En-zi (Taiwan), 2-0 (21-17 21-19) in the third match of the women’s doubles group B match.

Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee advanced to the semifinals in third place in Group B, following world number one Ryu Seong-soo and Tanning (China).

On the other hand, the 3rd place women’s doubles world ranking team, Kim Hye-jeong (Samsung Life Insurance) and Gong Hee-yong (Jeonbuk Bank), lost 0-2 (17-21 11-21) to Ryu Seong-su and Tanning, finishing in 3rd place.

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