(Xports News Reporter Yoon Jun-seok) The Badminton International Federation (BWF) expressed expectations by officially mentioning the possibility of Ahn Se-young, the world’s No. 1 women’s singles player, leading the way ahead of the 2026 season.
In a preview article looking at the new season posted on the official website on the 3rd (Korean time), BWF evaluated that “Ahn Se-young’s main competitors are currently only about four,” and predicted that there is a good chance that the Korean women’s singles star will dominate the world stage in 2026.
Se-young Ahn also responded by directly explaining her current status, goals, and efforts toward constant change through an interview on BWF’s official YouTube channel.
In an article titled “2026 Preview: Exciting matches await,” BWF recently released on its official website, it comprehensively pointed out the major trends in the world of badminton in 2026.
While analyzing the structure of traditional and emerging powers such as China, Malaysia, Indonesia, France, and Taiwan, Ahn Se-young’s name was by far the center of attention in the section dealing with Korean badminton.
BWF said, “Korea is in a historic position as the pair of Ahn Se-young, Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae continued their fateful journey until the end of the 2025 season, completing their 11th season title in Hangzhou. The question is how many challengers will appear to threaten them in 2026.”
The evaluation that immediately followed tilted toward Ahn Se-young.
BWF stated, “At least so far, there are few signs of that happening,” and “in the case of Ahn Se-young, there are currently only about four major challengers to her.”
This means that when looking at the overall landscape of women’s singles, the number of players who can actually threaten Ahn Se-young is extremely limited.
Although the names of these four players were not mentioned, it appears that Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi (world number 3), winner of last year’s World Championships, was added to the ‘Chinese trio’ of Wang Zhiyi (world number 2), Chen Yufei (world number 4), and Han Yue (world number 5).
On the other hand, regarding the men’s doubles pair of Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae, he added, “They showed a dominant performance in the 2025 season, but it may not be easy to maintain the same level of dominance as there were more opponents who defeated them.”
This evaluation is not an exaggeration considering Ahn Se-young’s performance in the 2025 season.
Ahn Se-young set a record for the most wins in a single season in women’s singles, reaching the top 11 times in 15 competitions in 2025. The winning rate was 94.8% (73 wins, 4 losses), surpassing even the records left by Lin Dan and Li Zongwei, who are considered legends in badminton history.
In the final of the BWF World Tour Finals held in Hangzhou, China in December, he defeated Wang Zhiyi (China) with a set score of 2-1 and lifted the final trophy of the season, setting an unprecedented record of exceeding $1 million in prize money in a single season.
BWF interpreted these achievements as ‘dominance’ rather than just numbers. The expectations in this article are also the part where the federation actually acknowledged the possibility of a specific player’s dominance in an official document.
However, rather than being excited by this external evaluation, Ahn Se-young herself was looking at herself more calmly.
On the 2nd, before the preview article was posted, BWF released an interview video titled ‘Ahn Se-young: Pain becomes strength’ through its official YouTube channel.
In this interview, Ahn Se-young looked back on last season and honestly confessed, “When I reminded myself of when I played at the World Championships, I had a lot of frustrating thoughts.”
He explained that he used frustration as a driving force for growth, saying, “I kept trying to resolve those thoughts by practicing again.”
Ahn Se-young did not hide his desire to be a player. He said, “Of course, as a player, I want to win a lot of titles,” but he made his goal clear, saying, “For now, I want to achieve what I called the Grand Slam once again.”
Although he was already a player who had won the Asian Games, World Championships, and Olympics, he was determined not to rest on those achievements.
To this end, what Ahn Se-young emphasized most was the ‘stabilization’ of play style.
He said, “The big goal is to be able to adopt the play style stably and quickly. This is not something that can be created overnight, so we have to keep testing and working hard until we get results.”
What particularly caught my attention was the training method. Se-young Ahn explained, “One of the ways to change my playing style is to spar with male players a lot. This is because male players can practice faster than female players.”
Improving attack power was also a key task directly mentioned by Ahn Se-young.
He emphasized, “For now, I want to improve my offense a little more,” and added, “The most important thing to do is to maintain my current defensive ability and stamina, while improving on top of that.”
Now, attention naturally turns to the 2026 season.
Ahn Se-young sets out to dominate the world once again, starting with the Malaysia Open.
Photo = BWF / Yonhap News
Reporter Junseok Yoon jupremebd@xportsnews.com
