Ahn Se-young: China Reacts to Badminton Star’s Rise

[스포티비뉴스=신인섭 기자] China is also paying keen attention to Ahn Se-young’s future moves.

Ahn Se-young defeated China’s Wang Zhiyi (world No. 2) 2-0 (21-13, 21-11) in the women’s singles final of the 2026 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Super 750 India Open held at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi, India. With this, Ahn Se-young reported her second win in 2026, following the previous Malaysia Open and the India Open.

Ahn Se-young showed peak form in 2025. He showed overwhelming performance by winning 11 times, and naturally became the first badminton player to earn more than $1 million (about 1,476.9 million won) in prize money. The game win rate was an astonishing 94.8%. The trend continues by already winning two titles in 2026.

Amid the upward trend, Ahn Se-young takes a short break. He will not participate in the BWF Thailand Masters Super 300, which will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from the 27th. This competition is also a competition in which most players do not participate as there is no mandatory participation clause for high-ranked players. In fact, including Ahn Se-young, Wang Ziyi (World No. 2, China), and Akane Yamaguchi (World No. 3, Japan) did not board the flight to Thailand.

In this situation, Ahn Se-young challenges a new record. Chinese media ‘Sohu.com’ reported, “Ahn Se-young, the ‘number one’ in the world of badminton, is now moving towards becoming the greatest ‘Badminton Empress’ in history. She has already surpassed many Chinese legends, and is now looking forward to becoming the best in badminton history.”

Ahn Se-young maintained her first place in the world rankings recently released by BWF, scoring 117,270 points. The gap with 2nd place Wang Ziyi is 13,908 points, showing an overwhelmingly high score. Ahn Se-young has been ranked number one in the world for a cumulative 129 weeks, and has been ranked number one for 67 consecutive weeks.

This is the fourth-highest record in women’s singles history. Ahn Se-young surpassed Chinese legends with an overwhelming performance. He surpassed all previous Chinese legends, including 2012 London Olympic gold medalist Li Xuerui (124 weeks), Wang Yihan (116 weeks), Ye Zhaoying (100 weeks), and Xue Xingfang (89 weeks). Now, we want to surpass Jiangning (145 weeks), which is 16 weeks apart.

Jiang Ning also once dominated the badminton world. She showed unrivaled performance by winning two consecutive gold medals in the women’s singles at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. If Ahn Se-young surpasses Jiang Ning, she will rank third in history, following Taiwan’s Taekwondo Tai Tzu-ying (214 weeks) and Indonesia’s Susi Susanthi (236 weeks).

‘Sohu.com’ also said, “If Ahn Se-young surpasses Jiang Ning, she will go beyond Chinese badminton and be listed as an active player in the ‘Top 3 best women’s singles players of all time’ in world badminton history. If she maintains last year’s momentum for about two more years, the records of Tai Tzu-ying and Susi Susanthi can also come into her sights.”