Ahn Se-young: Badminton Records & Historic Wins

In the last competition of 2025, ‘Badminton Empress’ Ahn Se-young (23, Samsung Life Insurance), who gave her all until the final match, won the championship point and roared powerfully as if she had been waiting. At that moment, the history of world badminton was rewritten.

Ahn Se-young marked the end of 2025 brilliantly by winning the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals. Ahn Se-young, world number one in badminton, won the championship by defeating Wang Ziyi (China) 2-1 (21-13, 18-21, 21-10) in 1 hour and 36 minutes in the final of the tournament held at the Olympic Sports Center in Hangzhou, China on the 21st. Ahn Se-young, who lost 0-2 to Wang Zhiyi in the semifinals of this competition last year, avenged himself a year later and rose to the top of this competition in 4 years since 2021.

The World Tour Finals, in which only the top 8 players participate based on the total points earned in this year’s BWF World Tour competition, is a tournament held like the King of Kings in badminton. Ahn Se-young continued to struggle throughout this competition. Ahn Se-young, who won all three matches in the group stage, advanced to the finals with a 2-0 victory over Japanese powerhouse Akane Yamaguchi in the semifinals.

Before this tournament, Ahn Se-young had won 7 out of 7 matches and had a 100% win rate against Wang Zhiyi. Seyoung Ahn once again overwhelmed Wang Ziyi. Ahn Se-young pushed hard from the beginning on Wang Zhiyi, who had an extra day off due to one of her competitors withdrawing from the group stage. Ahn Se-young, who was defeated by Wang Zhiyi 4 to 8 in the first game, succeeded in scoring 7 points in a row with a strategy of causing the opponent to make mistakes through persistent defense, taking the lead and winning the game. It was different in game 2. Wang Ziyi sharpened her attack and dug into An Se-young, eventually tying the score.

3 sets of destiny. As her uniform was soaked with sweat, it seemed like she would run out of stamina, but Ahn Se-young worked harder. At the end of the game, there was a difficult situation where I felt a cramp in my thigh, but I showed my fighting spirit and secured the win, and celebrated with a unique roaring ceremony. In addition to this win, Ahn Se-young widened the gap over Wang Zhiyi this year to 8 wins in 8 matches and a total record of 16 wins and 4 losses.

This year, Ahn Se-young showed the strongest performance in badminton around the world. Starting with the Malaysia Open last January, the All England Open in March, the Indonesia Open in June, and the Denmark Open in October, he won the Australian Open last month, reaching the top of 10 international competitions in one season. Ahn Se-young, who recorded the most women’s singles wins (9) in a single season in 2023, became the first female badminton player to record double-digit wins by winning the Australian Open.

Subsequently, by winning the World Tour Finals, Ahn Se-young tied the record for most wins in badminton men’s and women’s singles in a single season with Kento Momota (Japan), who achieved 11 wins in a single season in men’s singles in 2019. Ahn Se-young, who participated in 16 competitions this year, including this one, achieved championship-level results in most of the competitions, including winning 11 times, runner-up once, and third place twice.

Ahn Se-young’s achievements this year shine even more when we look at them in detail. In addition to this final victory, Ahn Se-young recorded 73 wins and 4 losses in 77 international competitions this season, creating a winning rate of 94.8%. According to BWF, this winning percentage is the highest among players who played more than 60 games in a season. Ahn Se-young broke the record for the highest winning percentage (92.75%) in badminton men’s singles, held by Lee Chong-wei (Malaysia) in 2010 and Lin Dan (China) in 2011.

Thanks to her consistent wins with overwhelming skills, Ahn Se-young also achieved good results in prize money. Se-young Ahn secured the prize money of $240,000 (about 350 million won) for winning this tournament, recording a season prize money of $1,003,175 (about 1.486 billion won). Ahn Se-young is the first player in badminton history to exceed $1 million in prize money in a single season.

Although she continues her career as a player while managing her knee and ankle pain, Ahn Se-young showed even stronger performance through high-intensity physical training. He went from being a defensive player who induced the opponent’s mistakes with his tight defense to an all-rounder with sharp attacks and intelligent play.

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