BWF Rankings: Ahn Se-young, Kim Won-ho & Chen Yu-fei Rise to Top

[OSEN=강필주 기자] While ‘Badminton Empress’ Ahn Se-young (24, Samsung Life Insurance) is firmly maintaining her No. 1 position in the world, her nemesis Chen Yu-fei (28, China) has laid the foundation for her pursuit.

According to the Badminton World Federation (BWF) world rankings announced on the 27th (Korean time), Ahn Se-young firmly maintained her No. 1 spot in the world in women’s singles with 117,270 ranking points.

Ahn Se-young, who won the Malaysia Open and India Open in succession earlier this year, did not participate in this year’s Indonesia Masters and focused on controlling her condition. However, the gap with second place Wang Zhiyi (103,362 points, China) is still widened by nearly 14,000 points, so ‘Ahn Se-young’s reign’ is expected to continue.

The news to be most wary of is Chen Yufei’s leap. Chen Yufei won the ‘No Loss Set’ at the Indonesia Masters (Super 500), which ended on the 25th, without giving up a single set.

Chen Yufei, who added 9,200 points with this win, rose to 3rd place with 94,635 ranking points, surpassing Akane Yamaguchi (93,064 points, Japan).

One of the reasons why Chen Yufei participates in the Super 500 competition and accumulates points is because her goal is to place at least second. It may be difficult to win the All England Open right now, but then we can avoid meeting Ahn Se-young early in major tournaments.

Other Korean players suffered a decline in rankings. Women’s singles Shim Yu-jin (27, Incheon International Airport) dropped three places in the rankings to 13th place (53,789 points) due to withdrawal due to injury during the Malaysia Open. Kim Ga-eun (28, Samsung Life Insurance) maintained 17th place (51,650 points).

The men’s doubles pair of Kim Won-ho (27) and Seo Seung-jae (29, Samsung Life Insurance) maintained their top spot in the world. Seo Seung-jae withdrew due to a shoulder injury ahead of the India Open (Super 750), but it had no effect on the rankings. The gap with second place (94,950) is also large at 26,305 points.

The women’s doubles pair of Baek Ha-na (26, MG Saemaul Geumgo) and Lee So-hee (32, Incheon International Airport) rose a notch to 3rd place, while the Kim Hye-jung (28, Samsung Life Insurance) and Gong Hee-yong (30, Jeonbuk Bank) pair fell two places to 5th place.

Meanwhile, the Korean team, including Ahn Se-young, plans to compete in the Asian Men’s and Women’s Team Championships to be held in Qingdao, China starting February 3 to improve their sense of performance.