[서울=뉴스핌] Jang Hwan-soo, Sports Reporter = Ahn Se-young will face Akane Yamaguchi (Japan), who is known as her only opponent, in the group stage in the year-end King of Kings. With the clash between Ahn Se-young and Yamaguchi, who are attempting to win 11 games in an unprecedented women’s singles season, Group A instantly became the ‘Group of Death’.
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 2025 to be held in Hangzhou, China, starting on the 17th (Korean time). This competition, in which only the top eight players in World Tour points in each event participate during the season, is a stage to determine the king of five events, including men’s and women’s singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.
For Ahn Se-young, the biggest variable in this tournament was not the tournament but rather the group stage. As a result of the group draw on the 13th, Ahn Se-young was placed in a group with Yamaguchi (4th), Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani (5th), and Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki (8th). Since only the top two players in the group stage advance to the semifinals, each match is directly connected to the fight for a medal.
Yamaguchi has a lower world ranking than China’s Wang Ziyi (2nd) and Han Yue (3rd) in Group B, but she is a representative rival who divided the women’s singles competition with Ahn Se-young throughout the season. He continued to compete against Ahn Se-young with his offensive development, tempo control, and skillful rally management skills. Their overall record is tied at 15 wins and 15 losses, and this year they met once in the finals of the last Korea Open, where Yamaguchi defeated Ahn Se-young and won.
At the group drawing event held in Hangzhou, the organizers chose to divide players into groups A and B by writing the players’ names on red folding fans instead of opaque balls. It was a production that made use of tradition and performance, but from Ahn Se-young’s perspective, the fan was able to embrace the most difficult group. In addition to Yamaguchi, Group A also includes Wardani, who is showing rapid growth, and Miyazaki, who is threatening the top spot with his formidable momentum.
If Ahn Se-young wins this tournament as well, she will tie the record for the most wins in a season for both men and women, matching the 11 wins in a single season achieved by Kento Momota (Japan) in men’s singles in 2019. As she has already achieved the first double-digit number of wins in women’s singles history with 10 wins, this is the stage where the final puzzle to complete history is at stake.
Korean badminton is set to ‘write history’ not only in singles but also in doubles at the World Tour Finals. In the men’s doubles, the world’s No. 1 team Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho will participate and aim for their 11th win of the season. The two players earned the nickname ‘Iron Wall Duo’ for their solid defense, quick transitions, and course attack ability. In women’s doubles, Kim Hye-jung, Gong Hee-yong and Baek Hana-Lee So-hee are on the hunt for medals.
