(Reporter Kwon Dong-hwan, Xports News) Cheong Sing-ho advanced to the semifinals of the 2026 Asian Men’s and Women’s Team Badminton Championships by following ‘Badminton Empress’ Ahn Se-young (Samsung Life Insurance, world No. 1) and Dae Jin-woon.
The Korean women’s badminton team will play the quarterfinals of the women’s team event against Malaysia at the Kon Son Gymnasium in Qingdao, China, on the morning of the 6th (Korean time).
The tournament format consists of 3 singles matches and 2 doubles matches, and the winner is determined in a best-of-5 match.
Ahn Se-young will play in the first singles match between Korea and Malaysia. Ahn Se-young’s opponent is Karupatevan Letshana, ranked 37th in the world.
The Korean women’s national team secured one win in the quarterfinals. The difference in baptismal rankings between Ahn Se-young and Letshana is large, and Ahn Se-young has faced Letshana twice so far and won 2-0 without giving up a single game.
After Ahn Se-young finishes the match, Baek Ha-na and Kim Hye-jeong will play in the first doubles, and Park Ga-eun (world No. 70) will face Wang Ling-qing (world No. 41) in the second singles.
Afterwards, it was decided that the pair of Kong Hee-yong and Lee Yeon-woo would play in the second doubles, and the third singles match between Kim Min-ji (world number 75) and Siti Zulayka (world number 89) would be played.
The Korean women’s national team is aiming for its first win at the Asian Men’s and Women’s Team Badminton Championships. The Korean women’s national team’s best ever performance in a competition is a runner-up finish in the 2020 and 2022 competitions.
The Korean women’s national team has the best lineup ever in this tournament, led by Ahn Se-young, and expectations for victory are growing.
On the 5th, Ahn Se-young played as the first singles runner in the second match of the women’s group Z match against Chinese Taipei, and gave Korea its first win by easily defeating world number 14 Qiu Pinchian with a game score of 2-0 (21-10 21-13).
Korea, riding on the momentum of Ahn Se-young’s victory, defeated Chinese Taipei 4-1 and went on a winning streak following its win against Singapore to advance to the quarterfinals as first place in the group.
In Korea, Ahn Se-young received a good performance in the quarterfinals of the tournament, raising expectations for advancing to the semifinals. In addition, expectations are already high that the team will advance to the finals by avoiding China and Japan and facing the winner of the relatively weaker quarterfinals between Indonesia and Thailand.
Ahn Se-young participated in the competition for the first time at the age of 16 in 2018 and took third place, and took second place in the 2020 competition. Attention is expected to be focused on whether Ahn Se-young will rise to the top of the competition after her third attempt and rewrite the history of Korean badminton.
Photo = Yonhap News
Reporter Kwon Dong-hwan [email protected]
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