BWF Bias? Yamaguchi vs Ahn Se-young Badminton Controversy

(Xports News Reporter Kwon Dong-hwan) The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is drawing attention by selecting Akane Yamaguchi (Japan), not Ahn Se-young, as the headliner while announcing each event of the 2025 BWF World Tour Finals.

This can be interpreted because Yamaguchi won the 2025 World Championships held in Paris, France last August, while Ahn Se-young took third place.

However, BWF also stated in the text that Ahn Se-young’s 11 titles this year were not confirmed, and gave Yamaguchi as many points as Ahn Se-young, who swept the international stage this year.

The BWF World Tour Finals will be held in Hangzhou, China from the 17th to the 21st.

The World Tour Finals, with a total prize money of $3 million, is contested by eight players or eight groups who have performed the best in each of the five badminton events of the year.

In years when the Olympics are held, the Olympic gold medalists and world rankings 1 to 7 will participate, and in years when the Olympics are not held, the world championship winners and world rankings 1 to 7 will participate.

In the women’s singles, world No. 1 Sei-young Ahn, No. 2 Wang Ziyi (China), No. 3 Yamaguchi (Japan), No. 4 Han Yue (China), No. 6 Putri Kusuma Wardani (Indonesia), No. 7 Pornpawi Chochuwong, No. 8 Ratchanok Inthanon (Thailand), and No. 9 Tomoka Miyazaki (Japan) will participate.

Chen Yufei (China), ranked 5th in the world and the only player to beat Ahn Se-young twice this year, was not eligible to participate due to the World Tour Finals regulations that allow only two teams or two groups from one country to participate in one event.

In this situation, BWF predicted the World Tour Finals, which were about a week away, and drew the line at predicting Ahn Se-young’s ‘first place finish’.

First of all, they put Yamaguchi, not Ahn Se-young, as the headline photo.

He continued, “Ahn Se-young is challenging Kento Momota (men’s singles, 2019, Japan), who won 11 titles in one season, for the most singles wins ever (tie). He is on the verge of writing history,” and added, “The Korean player is the overwhelming favorite to win the World Tour Finals, but this record is not confirmed.”

He then went on to give a somewhat lengthy explanation, saying, “Ahn Se-young’s strongest competitor is Yamaguchi. He advanced to the semifinals six times before winning his first title of the season.”

BWF praised, “Yamaguchi won the World Championships, the biggest tournament of the year. She found her own sense of competition and won two more titles. She is one of two players who have a strong record against Ahn Se-young. The other is Chen Yu-pei. Yamaguchi is the player who gave Ahn Se-young the only loss in the finals this season.”

Ahn Se-young reached the finals 11 times in international competitions this year. He reached the finals in eight of the 10 mandatory competitions for players ranked 1st to 15th in the world, including three Super 1000 competitions (Malaysia Open, All England Open, and Indonesia Open) and five Super 750 competitions (India Open, Japan Open, China Masters, Denmark Open, and French Open) and won all of them. He also won the Super 500 Australian Open and the Super 300 Orleans Masters.

However, he lost to Yamaguchi in the final of the Korea Open (Super 500) held in Suwon last September, and BWF mentioned this and predicted that the World Tour Finals will not end with Ahn Se-young dominating.

However, other than winning the World Championships this year, Yamaguchi has never won a Super 1000 or Super 750 competition. There is also an analysis that Yamaguchi’s victory at the World Championships was because Chen Yu-Fei defeated Ahn Se-Young in the semifinals.

Ahn Se-young ranked first in the world and received the top seed in Group A of this tournament. On the other hand, Yamaguchi and Hanwha may meet Ahn Se-young in the group stage depending on the group draw.

Meanwhile, the BWF had no doubts about the victory of the world number one pair of Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho in the men’s doubles.

BWF praised them, saying, “The Seo Seung-jae-Kim Won-ho group has never lost twice to a specific group. They have kept a large distance from other groups since the first season (of their formation).”

The pair of Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho quickly became the absolute best in this sport, reaching the top of a total of 10 competitions, including winning the World Championships this year.