Ahn Se-young: Record-Breaking Badminton Season & King of Kings Bid

‘11 wins’ Shin Ki-won aims right… If the ‘golden combination’ Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho also win, they will tie the record.

**Ahn Se-young shows off her fingers after achieving her 10th win of the season**

[AFP=연합뉴스]

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Oh Myeong-eon = Badminton’s ‘World’s Strongest’ Ahn Se-young challenges the record of having the most wins in a single season in history at the year-end King of Kings Tournament.

Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance), ranked No. 1 in the women’s singles world rankings, will participate in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals to be held in Hangzhou, China, starting on the 17th.

The BWF World Tour Finals is like the ‘King of Kings’ in the badminton world where the best players of the year gather to compete against each other.

Only the top 8 players and groups in total annual World Tour points in the five events of men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles can participate.

If Ahn Se-young wins this tournament, she will stand on par with the record of 11 wins in a single season set by Japanese male player Kento Momota in 2019. It is a tied record for both men and women, and although only women won, it is a new record.

Ahn Se-young participated in 14 international competitions this season and lifted the championship trophy in 10 competitions.

She reached the top for the 10th time at the BWF World Tour Super 500 Australian Open, which ended in Sydney, Australia on the 23rd of last month, and has already reached 10 wins in the season for the first time as a women’s singles player.

The previous record for most wins also belonged to Ahn Se-young. He recorded his 9th win of the season, winning the 2023 World Championship and 8 BWF World Tour competitions.

Ahn Se-young’s competitors in the World Tour Finals include Wang Ziyi, Han Yue (China), Akane Yamaguchi (Japan), Putri Kusuma Wardani (Indonesia), Pornpawi Chochuwong, Ratchanok Inthanon (Thailand), and Tomoka Miyazaki (Japan) according to World Tour points ranking.

China’s Chen Yufei, who is considered Ahn Se-young’s nemesis, is ranked 5th in World Tour points, but is absent due to the rule that only a maximum of two players per country can participate in one event. Instead of Chen Yufei, Miyazaki, ranked 9th, was named to the participation list.

The match will be divided into groups A and B with four players each, and the top two players from each group will advance to the semifinals to determine the winner.

Seyoung Ahn competes in Group A with Yamaguchi, Wardani, and Miyazaki.

The men’s doubles ‘ironwall duo’ Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho (Samsung Life Insurance) will also participate in this tournament.

If Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho also win this competition, they will tie the record for most wins in a single season, along with Ahn Se-young.

**Seungjae Seo and Wonho Kim (from left)**

[신화통신=연합뉴스]

The two, who formed a doubles group for the first time last January, have continued their ‘unrivaled undefeated streak’ since the beginning of this year and have been attracting attention as the ‘golden combination’ to succeed Park Joo-bong and Kim Moon-soo, Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon, and Lee Yong-dae and Jeong Jae-seong.

Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho participated in 16 international competitions this year and took first place in 10 competitions, including the World Championships.

Seung-jae Seo and Won-ho Kim, who enter the king of kings with an overwhelming first place in the World Tour rankings (129,720 points), a whopping 34,400 points different from second place, will clash with Man Wei Chong and Thi Kai Un (Malaysia), Sabar Karyaman Gutama and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Isfahani (Indonesia), and Zhu Xiang-jie and Wang Ji-lin (Taiwan) in Group A.

The BWF secretariat focused on the possibility of Korean athletes achieving new records through an article titled ‘History Beckons Korea’.

The secretariat said, “Three athletes are on the verge of achieving a historic record. It is rare for a historic moment to occur simultaneously in two categories of a competition, but this time, that possibility could become a reality.”

Ahn Se-young, Seo Seung-jae, and Kim Won-ho will depart through Incheon Airport on the 14th and take on the final challenge of the season until the 21st.