*This content was translated by AI.
Ahn Se-young (24, Samsung Life Insurance), the world No. 1 badminton women's singles player, settled in the final with no effort due to the withdrawal of her archrival Chen Yufei (China, 4th). In China, they are deeply disappointed that the two Olympic champions failed to face off.
"The 29th face-off between Tokyo Olympic champion Chen Yufei and Paris Olympic champion Ahn Se-young, which fans were most looking forward to in the semifinals of the Malaysian Open, was canceled," Chinese media Sohu Dotcom reported on the 10th (Korea time).
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) officially announced that Chen Yufei withdrew ahead of the semifinals of the women's singles, which was scheduled to be held at the Asiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
According to Sohu, Chen Yufei declared his withdrawal from the tournament. The media said, "Cheon Yu-pay did not disclose specific reasons for abstention," but added, "The recurrence of past injuries or accumulation of excessive fatigue seems to be the main cause."
In fact, Chen Yufei engaged in a series of bloody battles with Thai players on the final path of this tournament. He beat three Thai players in turn, Pichamon, Busanan and Rachanok Intanon, but his physical exhaustion was severe. Two of them were close matches to the third set. In particular, he exhausted his physical strength by exchanging 43 long rallies against Intanon. Sohu said, "This semi-final has actually drawn attention as a preview final. However, Ahn Se-young will advance to the final with a bye," he added.
With this, Ahn Se-young gave the green light to her bid for the third consecutive tournament while fully stocking her physical strength. For Ahn Se-young, Chen Yu-pei was the most demanding opponent. The record was 14 wins and 14 losses. Even last season, when Ahn Se-young had an overwhelming performance, the only player who lost two games was Chen Yu-pei.
Ahn's opponent is world No. 2 Wang Zhi of China. Wang Zhi defeated India's Fusala Sindhu (18th) 2-0 (21-16 21-15) in 52 minutes in the semifinals.
Wang Zhi showed a fierce background in the semifinals. Trailing 13-14 in the first game, he scored five consecutive points to turn the tide, and in the second game, he overcame the 9-13 inferiority to win a whopping nine points to win the final ticket.
For Ahn Se-young, Wang Zhi is a welcome opponent. He has an absolute advantage with 16 wins and 4 losses (80% win rate) in all 20 games in history. In particular, Ahn Se-young met Wang Zhi eight times last season and won all of them, proving a natural enemy relationship.
Wang Zi is afraid of Ahn Se-young. He lost eight of his 55 wins and 12 losses last season to Ahn. In the final of last month's Hangzhou BWF World Tour Finals, which was the most recent face-off, Ahn Se-young won 2-1 (21-13 18-21 21-10) after a close game.
Ahn dominated the world badminton scene last year with an unprecedented number of records. In the 2025 season, he won three Super 1,000-grade competitions (Malaysia Open, Jeon Young Open, Indonesia Open), five Super 750-grade competitions (Indian Open, Japanese Open, Chinese Masters, Danish Open, French Open), Super 500 Australian Open, Super 300 Orléan Masters, and won 11 World Tour Finals. This is a milestone that matches the record of most wins in a single BWF season set by Japan's Kento Momota in 2019.
It was also overwhelming in terms of figures. Despite the 77 games played last year, Ahn Se-young recorded 73 wins and 4 losses, achieving a phenomenal 94.8% winning rate, breaking the record for the highest winning rate in a single BWF season.
The prize money is also all-time high. Ahn Se-young, who added $240,000 (about 344 million won) in prize money by winning the World Tour Finals, recorded a cumulative prize of $13,175 (about 1.43 billion won), opening the era of $1 million in single-season prize money for the first time in BWF history. After a strong performance, Ahn Se-young was honored as the BWF Female Player of the Year for the third consecutive year and the Player of the Year by her colleagues for the second consecutive year.
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*This content was translated by AI.
