‘Shuttlecock Empress’ Ahn Se-young (23) will challenge for a record starting from the first week of the new year.
The Korean Badminton Association announced, “The national team will participate in the Malaysia Open and India Open in January 2026. They will depart on a passenger plane to Kuala Lumpur at dawn on the 1st of next month.”
In 2025, Ahn Se-young showed a ‘historical’ performance by breaking the record for the most wins (11 wins), the highest winning percentage (94.8%), and the most prize money ($1,003,175) among singles players in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) history. It seemed like he would need a break for a while, as he had pushed hard enough to participate in 16 competitions this year alone. However, he does not stop and starts the 2026 season right away.
Ahn Se-young, who won her 11th win of the season by defeating Wang Ziyi (China) in the final of the World Tour Finals on the 21st, said in an interview upon returning home the next day, “I don’t think my prime has come yet. I will have to continue to break the records for the most wins and the highest win percentage that I set this time.” He posted on his personal social media (SNS), “I want to come back stronger and break more records.”
One of the records Ahn Se-young is aiming for is the ‘Super 1000 Slam’. This refers to the performance of sweeping all four Super 1000 series competitions, which have the highest prize money and ranking points, in a single season.
Ahn Se-young reached the top of this year’s Malaysia, All England, and Indonesia Opens, but at the China Open held in July, she withdrew due to a knee injury in the semifinals against Han Yue (China) and had to postpone her achievement of the record until 2026.
The first tournament of the 2026 ‘Super 1000’ series is the Malaysia Open, which opens on the 6th of next month. Ahn Se-young, who has ranked first in this competition for two consecutive years (2024-2025), is trying to fulfill the first condition of achieving the ‘Super 1000 Slam’ with three consecutive wins.
We will also challenge for meaningful records at the Asian Championships to be held in April 2026 and the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games to open in September.
Ahn Se-young, who reached her peak in 2023, won the World Championships in August of that year, the Asian Games (Hangzhou) in September, and even won the Olympic gold medal (Paris) in August of the following year. However, the Asian Championship is the only major tournament without a trophy yet. Aiming for a career grand slam in 2026.
At the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, he aims to become the first Korean singles player to win the event for the second time in a row. It is a record that not even Korea’s badminton ‘women’s singles legend’ Bang Su-hyeon could achieve. Ahn Se-young defeated her old enemy, Chen Yu-Fei (China), in the previous competition (Hangzhou) and rose to the top.
Reporter Ahn Hee-soo anheesoo@edaily.co.kr
