‘World No. 1’ Ahn Se-young (24, Samsung Life Insurance) succeeded in advancing to the round of 16 with a complete victory in the Korea-Japan match.
Ahn Se-young defeated Japan’s badminton ace Nozomi Okuhara (world no. 30) 2-0 (21-17, 21-9) in the round of 32 of the 2026 Badminton World Federation (BWF) India Open (Super 750) held at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi, India on the 14th (Korean time).
As a result, Ahn Se-young, who tied the record for the most wins in a single season last year (11 wins), the highest winning percentage (94.8%, 73 wins, 4 losses), and exceeded $1 million in accumulated prize money ($1,003,175), is making a strong start toward her second consecutive win.
Ahn Se-young, who won this competition in 2025, will challenge for his second consecutive victory in the competition and his second win of the season. Previously, Ahn Se-young won the BWF World Tour Super 1000 Malaysia Open women’s singles final held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the 11th by completely defeating world No. 2 Wang Zhiyi (China) 2-0 (21-15, 24-22).
On this day, Ahn Se-young showed great concentration against Okuhara in the first game. We were down 16-17. After blocking Okuhara’s attack, Ahn Se-young succeeded in taking the lead by scoring 21 points first.
Okuhara, who unfortunately lost the first game, actually lost his fighting spirit in the second game. Ahn Se-young attacked from the beginning and took a 10-3 lead. In the end, Ahn Se-young, who had a large lead of 17-8, gave up one point, but won the game after successfully scoring four consecutive points.
Now, Se-young Ahn will face off against world number 38 Huang Yu-xun (Taiwan) in the round of 16 to advance to the quarter-finals. In the round of 32, Hwang Yu-shin achieved a 2-1 comeback victory over Ahn Se-young’s team and Kim Ga-eun, a senior member of the national team.
The matchmaking luck for this tournament is also very good. Okuhara, who he faced that day, was actually an opponent he had already met in the round of 16 of the Malaysia Open on the 8th. At that time, Ahn Se-young won 2-0. In addition, while taking an extra day of rest on the 13th, Kim Ga-eun was avoided depending on the results of other round of 32 matches. In addition, Japan’s Yamaguchi (#3 in the world rankings), who is relatively strong against Ahn Se-young, did not participate in this India Open at all. The aftermath of poor condition during the quarterfinals of the last Malaysia Open seems to have continued to have an impact. Also, Wang Zhiyi, Chen Yufei (World No. 4), and Han Yue (World No. 5) are all placed opposite Ahn Se-young in the bracket, so they will not meet until the finals. For Ahn Se-young, this can definitely be said to be good news.
Meanwhile, Ahn Se-young dominated the world badminton world last year and stood tall again as the strongest player. In the 2025 season, he won 3 Super 1000 level competitions (Malaysia Open, All England Open, Indonesia Open), 5 Super 750 level competitions (India Open, Japan Open, China Masters, Denmark Open, French Open), Super 500 Australian Open, Super 300 Orleans Masters, and even the World Tour Finals, the king of kings, to reach 11 wins in the season. Success.
In addition, he matched the record for most wins (11 wins) in a single season set by Japanese male player Kento Momota in 2019. The record for most wins by a women’s singles player in a single season was Ahn Se-young’s 9 wins in 2023, which has already been surpassed. In addition, Ahn Se-young won a whopping 73 out of 77 games this year, recording an impressive winning percentage of 94.8%. This record surpasses the season’s highest winning percentage (92.75%, 64 wins, 5 losses) set by Lin Dan (China) in men’s singles in 2011.
The prize money was also very large. Ahn Se-young added $240,000 (approximately KRW 340 million) in prize money by winning the World Tour Finals, exceeding the cumulative prize money of $1,003,175 (approximately KRW 1.44 billion). Ahn Se-young is the first player in history to open the era of $1 million in prize money in a single season. In the end, based on this great performance, Ahn Se-young was selected as BWF Female Athlete of the Year for three consecutive years and Player of the Year chosen by her peers for two consecutive years.
