Ahn Se-young Defeats Chen Yu-fei to Advance to the World Champio
Ahn Se-young defeats Chen Yu-fei to advance to the World Championships final... 30 years since Bang Soo-hyun
Women"s singles first gold challenge... Seo Seung-jae advances to mixed and male finals at the same time
Korean women"s badminton player Ahn Se-young is on the verge of winning the world championship.
On the 26th (local time), Ahn Se-young, ranked No. 1 in the world, defeated China"s Chen Yufei (world No. 3) 2-0 (21-19 21-15) in the women"s singles semifinal at the 2023 World Individual Championships held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
With this, Ahn Se-young advanced to the women"s singles final 30 years after Bang Su-hyeon, who finished runner-up in the 1993 event.
Her opponent in the finals is world No. 6 Carolina Marin (Spain).
If she conquers her marine, Ahn Se-young writes a new history by winning the women"s singles for the first time in the history of this tournament, which started in 1977, by a Korean player.
Ahn Se-young, who was leading 16-11 in the first set, almost gave up the first set because her play suddenly faltered.
In particular, in 16-14, the shuttlecock floated halfway twice in a row, allowing a tie.
However, Ahn Se-young showed his back and did not give up as much as the reversal, and won in a tight drive fight in 20-19.
In the second set, a close game was played by one or two points until the middle, but Ahn Se-young ended the game with 7 consecutive points from 14-15.
Ahn Se-young pulled out Chen Yu-fei"s mistakes with her tenacious defense, and her smashing attacks that went back and forth in a straight line and diagonally shone.
Good news was also delivered in the doubles event.
Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yoo-jung defeated world No. 2 Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino (Japan) 2-0 (21-15 21-13) in the mixed doubles semifinal match.
It is the first time in 20 years since Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min won the mixed doubles final in 2003.
In the men"s doubles, Seo Seung-jae teamed up with Kang Min-hyuk to advance to the final by beating Malaysian Aaron Chia-Sowiik 2-0 (23-21 21-13).
It has been 9 years since Ko Seong-hyeon-Shin Baek-cheol and Yeon-su-Lee Yong-dae shared the men"s doubles gold and silver medals in 2014.
Park Joo-bong (1985 men"s doubles/mixed doubles, 1991 men"s doubles/mixed doubles) and Kim Dong-moon (1999 men"s doubles/mixed doubles) are two Korean players who have won two events at the same time in previous competitions.
The finals will be held in the order of mixed doubles, women"s doubles, women"s singles, men"s singles, and men"s doubles from 7:00 pm on the 27th in Korea time.