Ahn Se-young & Chen Yufei: Potential Early Clash at Quarterfinals

(Reporter Kim Jeong-hyun, Xports News) Will Ahn Se-young (23, Samsung Life Insurance), who has become the world’s strongest badminton player, meet her biggest rival early in the first competition in 2026?

As Chen Yufei (China), who did not participate in the recently concluded Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals 2025 due to being ineligible, reappears at the international competition, the possibility of a clash between the two is attracting attention.

In particular, with the announcement of Chen Yu-Fei’s seed, Ahn Se-young and Chen Yu-Fei could face each other in the quarterfinals rather than the semifinals or finals.

The Korean badminton team, led by coach Park Joo-bong and including Ahn Se-young, will depart from Incheon International Airport on the night of the 31st.

According to the Korea Badminton Association, 23 members of the badminton team will leave Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to participate in the 2026 BWF Malaysia Open (Super 1000) for a total of 20 days from the 1st to the 19th.

The plane’s takeoff time is scheduled for around 10:10 on January 1, so Ahn Se-young will spend the first moments of the new year of 2026 on the plane. It has been a forced march with no time to catch a breath since the beginning of the new year.

The Malaysia Open will be held at the Aksaita Arena in Kuala Lumpur for six days from January 6 to 11 next year.

While the top 32 players in the world rankings participate in each event, Ahn Se-young will be assigned a seed given to the top 8 players in women’s singles.

In the draw that will be held on the 30th, Ahn Se-young received the No. 1 seed as she is ranked No. 1 in the world. Next, Wang Ziyi (China, No. 2), Akane Yamaguchi (Japan, No. 3), Han Yue (China, No. 4), Chen Yu-fei (China, No. 5), Pornpawi Chochuwong (Thailand, No. 6), Putri Kusuma Wardani (Indonesia, No. 7), and Ratchanok Inthanon (Thailand, No. 8) will be in the first round matchup. Cho Chu-wong was recently injured, so if he does not participate, Tomoka Miyazaki (Japan) will be among the eight seeded players.

However, 2nd place Wang Zhiyi is placed furthest away to avoid an early confrontation with 1st place Ahn Se-young. The two will meet in the finals.

According to the draw on the 30th, Ahn Se-young can face any of the top 32 players in the world rankings, but will not meet the top seven seeded players in the first round.

However, in the quarterfinals, they will clash with one of the 5th to 8th seeded players. And among them, there is a possibility of a relationship with Chen Yufei.

Chen Yufei is one of the top Chinese players who is called Ahn Se-young’s nemesis. This year, Ahn Se-young has the upper hand in opponent matches, but out of the 4 losses Ahn Se-young recorded this year, 2 were against Chen Yu-fei.

Chen Yufei has recently experienced hardships, including being in a wheelchair due to an injury to the sole of her foot, but she is expected to clash with Ahn Se-young as she continues to participate in international competitions in the 2026 season.

Ahn Se-young and Chen Yu-fei also received the 1st and 5th seeds at the India Open (Super 750) held after the Malaysia Open.

Chen Yufei is a gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won a silver medal at last year’s World Championships. In terms of skill alone, he was worthy of being ranked as the 4th seed, but he suffered an injury, and suffered a shock loss in the early stages at the Denmark Open in October of last year, so he only achieved the 5th seed at the Malaysia Open and India Open.

Among the opponents that Ahn Se-young has played over 20 games to date, the only player with a 50% win rate is Chen Yu-pei.

Ahn Se-young, who met Chen Yu-fei for the first time in the first round of the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, lost all of his first seven games, starting with a 0-2 defeat. Ahn Se-young was called her natural enemy. For about four years, from August 2018 to May 2022, the thousand yu pay barrier could not be overcome.

The first time Ahn Se-young beat Chen Yu-fei was at the 2022 Malaysia Masters. They faced each other in the finals and won the first game 21-17, then easily won the second game 21-5, defeating Chen Yufei for the first time and winning the championship.

Afterwards, Ahn Se-young balanced his record against Chen Yu-fei, who was inferior. In particular, in the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games women’s singles final, Ahn Se-young won 2-1 after a grueling match against Chen Yu-fei despite suffering an injury.

However, even if he won this game, Ahn Se-young was behind Chen Yu-fei with a record of 8 wins and 10 losses. In the semifinals of the Kumamoto Masters the following month, Ahn Se-young lost again to Chen Yu-fei.

Ahn Se-young, who recorded 1 win and 1 loss in 2024, met as many as 7 times in 2025. Starting with the Orleans Masters in March and ending with the French Open in October, Ahn Se-young finally balanced her opponent’s record by clashing a total of 7 times and recording 5 wins and 2 losses.

Chen Yufei is praising Ahn Seyoung, who has grown tremendously and has become her rival. In an interview with People magazine last October, he said, “I really value Ahn Se-young. We’ve really bonded a lot over the years.”

He continued, “The first match was in 2018, when Ahn Se-young was still a minor. Everyone called Ahn Se-young ‘Korean genius’ and he used to show impressive performance on the court. I won too easily at that time. It was relatively easy at the time, but I didn’t know that it would get more and more difficult after that.”

Chen Yufei also said, “I could clearly feel that Ahn Se-young has learned and developed over the past few years. Even at the peak moment like now, Ahn Se-young wants to continue to develop,” and added, “Every time I play with Ahn Se-young, I can feel her new leap and development, which is a very valuable experience.” He said that the rivalry with Ahn Se-young was also helpful to him.

“Despite winning the Olympics and the World Championships, Seyoung Ahn is still dreaming of improving her skills, making history, and winning more championships,” said Chen Yufei, expressing her respect for the world No. 1, who is four years younger than her by saying, “This ambition to win is a quality of Seyoung Ahn that I especially admire.”

Ahn Se-young also reflected on how difficult the rivalry with Chen Yu-fei was, saying in an interview after returning home after winning the World Tour Finals on the 22nd, “I also had a time when I worried about Chen Yu-fei and Akane Yamaguchi.”

Attention is being paid to the draw on the 30th to see whether Ahn Se-young will meet her biggest rival early in the BWF top-level tournament that will be held from the beginning of the new year.

The two faced each other early in the quarterfinals of the Singapore Open in May last year, with Ahn Se-young suffering her first loss after 27 consecutive wins. There is a possibility that Ahn Se-young and Chen Yu-fei will meet in the quarterfinals in the first two tournaments of the new year.