Kim Won-ho & Seo Seung-jae: Korea Win Badminton Finals Spot | Indonesia Defeated

[사진]OSEN DB.

[OSEN=고성환 기자] It only took 28 minutes. The ‘World No. 1’ Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae (Samsung Life Insurance) won an overwhelming victory and advanced to the final stage of the World Tour Finals.

Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae defeated Indonesia’s Savar Karyaman Gutama and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Isfahani (world’s 10th ranked) 2-0 (21-9 21-11) in the men’s doubles semifinals of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals 2025 held at the Olympic Sports Center in Hangzhou, China on the 20th (Korean time).

There was nothing rough this time either. Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae are sweeping this tournament as winners of the ‘BWF Men’s Doubles Pair of the Year’ award. The two won 3 out of 3 games in the group stage, and also achieved an easy win in the semifinals to advance to the finals.

The World Tour Finals is a ‘Battle of Kings’ competition in which eight players (teams) with the best performance in international competitions throughout the year clash. It is also the last competition in 2025. However, the team of Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae easily won four games in a row here as well, giving the green light to their 11th win of the season.

[사진]OSEN DB.

[사진]OSEN DB.

There was not a single crisis. On this day, Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae started game 1 with 6 consecutive points and entered the interval with an 11-4 lead. The two showed off their skills and took the first game easily, 21-9. It was so overwhelming that victory and defeat were decided in 11 minutes.

In the second game, Gutama-Isfahani’s counterattack was fierce. The team of Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae went down 1-1, conceding 4 runs. However, he quickly regained his pace and turned the game around by scoring five consecutive points at 4-7.

After that, Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae continued their scoring streak. They put strong pressure from the front line, harassing the opponent, and not even giving them a chance to attack. The two scored in succession in the second half, winning both games 21-11. As a result, the semifinals ended in 28 minutes.

Korean badminton reached the finals in three events, including women’s singles Ahn Se-young and women’s doubles Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee, and men’s doubles Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae. BWF said, “It was a good day for Korea. Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae also joined their hometown teammates in the final stage. Like Ahn Se-young, they are chasing a record of 11 wins this season.”

[사진]OSEN DB.

The team of Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae and Ahn Se-young are challenging badminton history with ’11 wins in a single season’. Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae achieved 10 wins faster than Ahn Se-young this season. The two, who reunited for the first time in 7 years last January, have won all of them, starting with the Malaysia Open, German Open, All England Open, Indonesia Open, Japan Open, World Championships, China Masters, Korea Open, French Open, and Japan Open.

This is a tie for the most wins in a single season in doubles. Since the start of the BWF’s current World Tour system in 2018, the only duo to achieve 10 doubles wins in a year (men’s, women’s, and mixed) is China’s Zheng Siwei-Huang Yachong (2022). Going back even further, it is tied with the legendary Li Yongbo-Tian Bingyi’s men’s doubles championship record of 1988. If we narrow it down to men’s doubles, it is a record that has been around for 37 years.

Now all that remains is to see how far their historic steps will continue. In particular, Seo Seung-jae is aiming for his 12th personal victory this season, having won the Thailand Masters together with Jin Yong (Yonex) earlier this year.

Meanwhile, after winning the semifinals, Seo Seung-jae said, “We are not thinking about winning 11 crowns yet. There is still one more game left,” and pledged to focus only on the victory at hand rather than achieving a record.

/[email protected]

Go Seong-hwan ([email protected])