[스포티비뉴스=박대현 기자] Hangzhou Court became a ‘sea of tears’. When Chinese badminton lost supremacy to Korea in the men’s and women’s doubles as well as the women’s singles, where it was expected to be inferior for some time, the players shed tears of lamentation one after another.
For Wang Zhiyi (China), ranked second in the women’s singles world rankings this year, Ahn Se-young was no longer a rival. It was a ‘nightmare’.
Ahn Se-young defeated Wang Ziyi 2-1 (21-13 18-21 21-10) in the women’s singles final of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Finals 2025 held in Hangzhou, China on the 21st.
It was a perfect ending in the last battlefield of this season. The final was a bloody battle that lasted 1 hour and 36 minutes. At match point in game 3, Ahn Se-young was hit by an unexpected event that caused cramps in her left thigh, but she calmly overcame it. He held on until the end of the final rally and lifted the 11th championship trophy of the season.
As a result, Ahn Se-young became the second player in history to achieve 11 wins in a single season after men’s badminton legend Kento Momota (Japan) in 2019. This is an unprecedented record in women’s singles.
For Wang Ziyi, this final was particularly cruel. This year, he faced Ahn Se-young eight times and lost all eight times. Seven of them were final matches. Even in the king of kings match held in the home room two days ago, this trend could not be reversed.
▲ Yonhap News / AFP
After the game ended, Wang Ziyi shed tears in the mixed zone. China’s NetEase reported, “Wang Zhiyi smiled on the podium, but cried in the interview,” adding, “He was speechless as he recalled the moment he collapsed in the third game.”
Wang Ziyi admitted defeat, saying, “My stamina and energy did not match my head. I was completely pushed out in the long rally,” and “There was a difference between Ahn Se-young and me in terms of detail and stamina.” He also wrote on Weibo, “I am disappointed that I could not reach the top position, but I will not stop this journey.”
▲ Screen capture of ‘CZTV’
The impact on Chinese badminton did not stop with fasting. The men’s and women’s doubles also bowed down to Korea.
The men’s doubles team of Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, ranked 5th in the world, lost 0-2 (18-21 14-21) to Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae (Samsung Life Insurance) in the final of the King of Kings.
In the second game, both the content and the result were bitter enough that the score gap widened to 7-17 at one point. The Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center, where the sound of “Jjayo” was loud at the beginning of the game, became quiet at some point.
The women’s doubles world number one pair of Ryu Seong-su and Tanning also suffered a shocking upset loss to Korea’s Lee So-hee and Baek Hana (Incheon International Airport) in the semifinals of the tournament.
Even after leading 15-8 in three games, they lost the momentum. In the end, the final game was awarded 19-21. The world’s strongest women’s team, which won a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, ended up in tears in the mixed zone. China’s Shangguan Newspaper said, “The women’s doubles team, which swept the gold and silver medals at last year’s Paris Olympics, was silent on its own court,” pointing out the weakness of the Great Wall of China in this competition, which was stranded by the “strong wind from Korea.”
On the last day of the King of Kings held in Hangzhou for the second year in a row, the main character was clear. They were Ahn Se-young, Seo Seung-jae, Kim Won-ho, Lee So-hee, Baek Hana and Korean badminton.
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