Ahn Se-young Dominates: China’s Badminton Era Ending?

(Reporter Kim Jeong-hyun, Xports News) The momentum of Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance), the current world number one, is now heading toward the greatest stars of all time.

China’s Sohu.com reported on the 27th (Korean time) that Ahn Se-young, the world’s strongest women’s singles player, is moving toward becoming the queen of badminton.

The media said, “Ahn Se-young is now moving towards becoming the greatest ‘Badminton Empress’ in history. Having already surpassed several Chinese legends, he now looks forward to becoming the GOAT in badminton history.”

Ahn Se-young firmly maintained first place with 117,270 points in the women’s singles world rankings announced by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on the 27th. Second place Wang Zhiyi (China) also maintained her position with 103,362 points.

Ahn Se-young’s rival Chen Yu-fei (China), who recently won the women’s singles title at the Indonesia Masters (Super 500), took third place (94,635 points) and Akane Yamaguchi (Japan, 93,063 points) took fourth place, creating a new top three system.

Ahn Se-young has now been ranked first in women’s singles for a cumulative 130 weeks. It has been firmly in first place for 68 consecutive weeks, and no one can surpass its throne.

Ahn Se-young, who rose to the world’s No. 1 ranking for the first time in August 2023, wrote a new history in Korean badminton by winning the gold medal in badminton women’s singles at the 2024 Paris Olympics the following year.

Although she briefly fell to second place in October of the same year, Ahn Se-young immediately regained first place and has maintained her first place for one year and three months.

Ahn Se-young, who has now been in first place for a total of 130 weeks, is only 15 weeks away from Chinese legend Zhang Ning’s record of 145 weeks. This record can be broken in 15 weeks, about 4 months later in May.

Jiang Ning is a Chinese badminton legend who won two gold medals in the women’s singles at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and is a legend that dominated the late 1990s and 2000s.

If she surpasses Jiang Ning, Ahn Se-young has already surpassed numerous Chinese legends and will surpass the last legend to become the third most-accumulated world number one of all time.

Already, Chinese badminton women’s singles legends such as Li Xuerui (124 weeks), Wang Yihan (116 weeks), Ye Zhaoying (100 weeks), and Xue Xingfang (89 weeks) collapsed helplessly in front of An Se-young. Now only two people remain.

There is Taiwanese badminton legend Tai Tzu-ying (214 weeks), who recently announced her retirement, and Susi Susanthi (Indonesia, 263 weeks), who is considered the best female badminton player in history.

Although Tai Tzu-ying has not won the Olympics or World Championships, she has won the singles title a whopping 38 times and is a legend who maintained first place for a long period of time in the 2010s.

Susanti is a legend among legends, having won the women’s singles gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the 1993 World Championships, as well as 49 individual wins on the adult stage and 7 team wins. She is a legend among legends with a career winning percentage of 89.2% (379 wins, 46 losses) in women’s singles, which is much higher than Ahn Se-young (85%).

‘Sohu.com’ noted, “If Ahn Se-young surpasses Jiang Ning, she will surpass Chinese badminton and become an active player among the top three women’s singles players in world badminton history. If she maintains last year’s momentum for two more years, the records of Tai Tzu-ying and Susan-ti may also come into her sights.”

The possibility of Ahn Se-young breaking the long-running record is very high. Ahn Se-young will go on the hunt for the individual title again after competing in the Asian Men’s and Women’s Team Badminton Championships to be held in Qingdao, China in February. Following the All England Open (Super 1000), which boasts 127 years of tradition, in March, the ‘Thomas and Weaver Cup’, the World Men’s and Women’s Team Badminton Championships, will be held in April.

There is a high possibility of breaking Jiang Ning’s record after the Singapore Open (Super 750) and Indonesia Open (Super 1000) are held in succession at the end of May. They can continue their ‘all-time TO3’ momentum at the Japan Open (Super 750) and China Open (Super 1000) in July.

At the young age of 23, Ahn Se-young quickly maintained the world’s No. 1 position for a long period of time and established herself as a ‘top power’. The history-making journey of Ahn Se-young is so endless that it is no exaggeration to say that she has only just entered the beginning.

Photo = Yonhap News

Reporter Kim Jeong-hyeon sbjhk8031@xportsnews.com