(Reporter Kwon Dong-hwan, Xports News) It is highly likely that 2026 for ‘Badminton Empress’ Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance, world No. 1) will be a bloody battle with Chen Yu-fei.
Seyoung Ahn will participate in the 2026 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Malaysia Open (Super 1000) held at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the 6th (Korean time).
The BWF World Tour has four Super 1000 tournaments (Malaysia Open, All England Open, Indonesia Open, and China Open), the highest level.
Last season, Ahn Se-young aimed for the ‘Super 1000 Slam’ by winning all four tournaments by reaching the top of the Malaysia Open, All England Open, and Indonesia Open, but withdrew from the last tournament, the China Open semifinals, due to a knee injury.
 |
Se-young Ahn will challenge the Super 1000 Slam once again by participating in the Malaysia Open as the first international tournament of the 2026 season.
According to the bracket announced on the 30th of last month, Ahn Se-young will face Canada’s Michelle Lee (ranked 12th in the world) in the first round of the tournament. If she passes the first round, she will face the winner of the first round between Nozomi Okuhara (Japan, world No. 30) and Bai Yupo (Taiwan, world No. 67) in the round of 16.
Michelle Lee is a world-class women’s singles powerhouse, but Ahn Se-young is ahead in her opponent’s record with eight wins. Okuhara, a strong opponent in the round of 16, is a bronze medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and if she meets Ahn Se-young this time, it will be her first match.
The difficult battle is expected to begin in the quarterfinals. According to the bracket, if Ahn Se-young advances to the quarterfinals, her most likely opponent will be China’s Han Yue (ranked 5th in the world). Fortunately, Ahn Se-young is ahead of Hanwe with 9 wins and 2 losses, and excluding the China Open semifinals, where he withdrew due to a knee injury, he has won all 5 matches against Hanwe over the past two years.
 |
Ahn Se-young’s biggest challenge is the semifinals. At this point, it is highly likely that Ahn Se-young will meet China’s Chen Yu-fei (4th in the world), who has been her nemesis and rival until recently, in the semifinals.
Seyoung Ahn has the upper hand in her record against all players except Chen Yufei. Among the top 20 women’s singles world rankings, there are many cases where Ahn Se-young has never been defeated.
Only Ahn Se-young is tied with Chen Yu-fei with a record of 14 wins and 14 losses. Fortunately, they have been steadily catching up since two years ago, and tied the record after recording 5 wins and 2 losses last year.
As injuries have become more frequent recently, the possibility of retirement has come to mind, but Chen Yu-fei did not hide his will to surpass Ahn Se-young. In September of last year, he said, “Ahn Se-young is not undefeated and invincible,” recalling that he defeated Ahn Se-young twice, including at the Singapore Open and the Paris World Championships, through the Chinese weekly magazine ‘Southern People Weekly’.
Before the new year, I set my sights on winning gold at the Asian Games and World Championships. It is a will to surpass Ahn Se-young.
 |
Chen Yufei is determined to heal his injury and spend the 2026 season in good health and challenge for the championship again.
Both in Korea and China, Ahn Se-young’s biggest rival is seen as Chen Yu-fei. They did not win the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for nothing. When interviewing Chinese media, Chen Yufei explains Ahn Se-young’s strategy in detail.
Ahn Se-young also sees the fact that his opponent record is tied with Chen Yu-fei positively. In 2026, he must gain a clear advantage over Chen Yufei in order to achieve his desired goals, such as gold medals in two major competitions such as the World Championships and Asian Games, and the Super 1000 Slam.
If Ahn Se-young defeats Chen Yu-fei, Ahn Se-young’s chances of winning increase significantly. Ahn Se-young is expected to meet China’s world number 2 Wang Zhiyi in the finals, but Wang Zhiyi showed a very weak performance last season, losing all eight matches to Ahn Se-young.
Ahn Se-young, who left Korea early on the 31st of last month and is currently training in warm Malaysia, is setting out to create another legend in 2026. That time is getting closer.
Photo = Yonhap News / Ahn Se-young SNS
Reporter Kwon Dong-hwan kkddhh95@xportsnews.com
The categories of this article follow the classification of media outlets.
