(Exports News Reporter Kim Hyun-ki) The Korean badminton team, led by world-class players such as world number one women’s singles Ahn Se-young and men’s doubles world number one Seung-jae Seo and Kim Won-ho, will be competing for the first time in the 2026 season on the night of the 31st without even hearing the bell ringing.
We hear praise that badminton’s heyday has arrived, which is rare in recent times, but on the other hand, there are also criticisms that it is a ‘half-full feat’. This does not mean that the badminton national team players and coaching staff did not do well, but in some sports, there are no players ranked in the top 30 in the world.
The shadow of Korean badminton will be revealed starting from the 2026 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Malaysia Open (Super 1000), which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from the 6th.
Excluding the Olympics, World Championships, and World Tour Finals, Korea cannot send any men’s singles or mixed doubles players to the Malaysia Open, one of the four Super 1000 series tournaments with the largest total prize money.
First of all, in the case of men’s singles, national representative Jeon Hyuk-jin is ranked 35th in the world, the highest ranking. Jeon Hyuk-jin was listed as a participating player on the competition website until mid-month, but was recently left out. It has not been confirmed whether it is because of an injury, a drop in the world rankings, or some other reason. Among the 32 players participating in the Malaysia Open men’s singles, none is ranked lower than Jeon Hyuk-jin.
Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan also produced a number of players in the world’s top 30 and presented their calling cards to the Malaysia Open men’s singles, but Korea has zero players.
There are also 0 players participating in mixed doubles.
In the Malaysian mixed doubles, there are 5 groups from Malaysia, 4 groups each from China and Taiwan, 3 groups from Denmark, India, and Thailand, 2 groups from Japan, Indonesia, and France, and 1 group from Hong Kong, Scotland (England), the United States, and Germany.
Korea dominated the mixed doubles at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics held last year with two groups advancing to the semifinals, with Kim Won-ho and Jeong Na-eun winning a silver medal and Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yu-jeong taking fourth place. The pair of Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yu-jeong also won a gold medal at the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, two years ago.
However, with Chae Yu-jeong announcing her retirement in October last year, there is no high-level mixed doubles team currently active.
Accordingly, eight teams will participate in this Malaysia Open, including Ahn Se-young, Shim Yu-jin, and Kim Ga-eun (women’s singles), Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju (men’s doubles), Lee So-hee and Baek Hana, Kim Hye-jung and Gong Hee-yong, and Jeong Na-eun and Lee Yeon-woo (women’s doubles).
The lineup for the three participating sports has been prepared to some extent.
It is fortunate that the Korea Badminton Association is also aware of the problems in men’s singles and mixed doubles and is showing its will to improve, such as by promoting the introduction of a separate mixed doubles representative selection event.
National team coach Park Joo-bong mentioned the news of Chae Yu-jeong’s retirement when the national team returned to Korea last October after finishing the Denmark Open and French Open, and announced plans to introduce a mixed doubles national team selection event. So far, we have been matched with players who play men’s doubles and women’s doubles, one by one.
As a result, there were cases where players who played two sports at the same time complained of difficulties due to physical strength issues and gave up on mixed doubles.
Recently, Chinese and Southeast Asian media praised the power of Ahn Se-young, Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho as the ‘world’s best’, but also commented that “Korea is half-baked” due to the lack of men’s singles and mixed doubles players.
In the new year, how to resolve power imbalance is expected to be a key issue.
Photo = Xports News DB
Reporter Kim Hyun-ki spitfire@xportsnews.com
