The semifinal opponent for the Korean women’s national badminton team has been selected as Indonesia. Expectations were high on whether the match between Thailand’s ‘genius badminton girl’ Pichamon Opatnipus and Ahn Se-young, who had always chosen Ahn Se-young as her role model, would be successful, but as Thailand lost to Indonesia in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Asian Men’s and Women’s Team Badminton Championships, the meeting between Ahn Se-young and Pichamon was postponed to a later date. photo SNS
(Reporter Kim Hwan, Xports News) The Korean women’s national badminton team’s semifinal opponent has been selected as Indonesia.
Expectations were high on whether the match between Thailand’s ‘genius badminton girl’ Pichamon Opatnipus and Ahn Se-young, who had always chosen Ahn Se-young as her role model, would be successful, but as Thailand lost to Indonesia in the quarterfinals, the meeting between Ahn Se-young and Pichamon was postponed to a later date.
The Korean women’s national team won three consecutive games against Malaysia in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Asian Men’s and Women’s Team Badminton Championships held at the Kon Son Gymnasium in Qingdao, China on the 6th (Korean time), confirming their advancement to the semifinals of the tournament.
The women’s national team overwhelmed Malaysia by winning three games in an instant in the team event of this tournament, which is a best-of-five match consisting of three singles matches and two doubles matches.
In the first singles, Korea started off with Ahn Se-young, the star of Korean women’s badminton, easily defeating Karupateban Letsana with a game score of 2-0 (21-11 21-11). In the next two games, Baek Ha-na and Kim Hye-jeong, formed amid concerns that the team was a hastily created combination, defeated Ong Shin Lee and Kamen Ting 2-0 (21-13 21-9).
The semifinal opponent for the Korean women’s national badminton team has been selected as Indonesia. Expectations were high on whether the match between Thailand’s ‘genius badminton girl’ Pichamon Opatnipus and Ahn Se-young, who had always chosen Ahn Se-young as her role model, would be successful, but as Thailand lost to Indonesia in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Asian Men’s and Women’s Team Badminton Championships, the meeting between Ahn Se-young and Pichamon was postponed to a later date. Photo Yonhap News
The player who put an end to Korea’s advance to the semifinals was Park Ga-eun.
Park Ga-eun, ranked 70th in the world, won with a game score of 2-0 (21-16 21-12) against Wo Ling-qing (world ranking 41), whose world ranking was nearly 30 places higher than her. In particular, Park Ga-eun showed off her skills by showing dominance in the second game.
Korea settled in the semifinals of the tournament without playing the second doubles and third singles matches, as Park Ga-eun won the second singles match, bringing the team score to 3-0. The women’s national team, which advanced to the quarterfinals by taking first place in the group by defeating Singapore 5-0 and Chinese Taipei 4-1 in the group stage, continued its good momentum in the tournament.
Korea was scheduled to face the winner of the Indonesia-Thailand match in the semifinals, but in the match held on the same day, Indonesia defeated Thailand 3-2 and faced Korea in the semifinals.
On this day, the match between Indonesia and Thailand was a close match with the score of 2-2 in the team match, but Indonesia won the final match, the 5th singles match, and the match was decided.
Indonesia lost to Thailand in both singles matches, but showed its strength by winning all three doubles matches, and in the last match, the 5th singles match, Esther Nurumi Tri Wirdoyo won against Pornpicha Choikiwong, confirming their advance to the semifinals.
The semifinal opponent for the Korean women’s national badminton team has been selected as Indonesia. Expectations were high on whether the match between Thailand’s ‘genius badminton girl’ Pichamon Opatnipus and Ahn Se-young, who had always chosen Ahn Se-young as her role model, would be successful, but as Thailand lost to Indonesia in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Asian Men’s and Women’s Team Badminton Championships, the meeting between Ahn Se-young and Pichamon was postponed to a later date. Photo Yonhap News
Thailand started the match in a good mood by winning the 1st singles match, and Pichamon seemed to have brought the momentum by narrowly winning the 3rd singles match with Indonesia’s Ni Kadek Dinda Amartya Pratiwi with a game score of 1-2 (19-21 21-17 21-13) after a close match of 1 hour and 23 minutes. However, they collapsed in the doubles match and ended the tournament in the quarterfinals.
Due to Thailand’s elimination, the match between Ahn Se-young and Pichamon was also cancelled.
Ahn Se-young and Pichamon have yet to face each other on the international stage. This is because Pichamon failed to raise his world ranking after debuting on the adult stage.
Although he recently finished runner-up at the Indonesia Masters and raised his world ranking to 30th, the reality for Pichamon is that it is difficult to participate in the Super 1000 and Super 750 competitions in which Ahn Se-young mainly participates.
Pichamon, Thailand’s best badminton prospect, consistently refers to Ahn Se-young as a role model and says he wants to follow Ahn Se-young’s path. In a recent interview, when asked about his role model, he answered Ahn Se-young along with Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying, revealing his admiration for Ahn Se-young.
Photo = SNS / Yonhap News
Reporter Kim Hwan hwankim14@xportsnews.com
