An Se-young wins again! It was a tight 11-10 match, but in an instant it became 21-10... A crushing victory in the first round in just 20 minutes, followed by a decisive 2-0 win over Sri Lanka's pride.

*This content was translated by AI.

'Badminton Empress' An Se-young (Samsung Life) has won again. In her first match, she dominated her opponent in just 20 minutes, and later that same day, she easily overcame the pride of Sri Lankan women's singles.

World No. 1 An Se-young thoroughly defeated Sri Lanka's Ranitma Liyanage 2-0 (21-9, 21-10) in the round of 16 of the women's singles badminton tournament at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held on the 26th at Ichinomiya Municipal Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

The match lasted only 35 minutes.

With this victory, An Se-young advanced to the quarterfinals and continued her sprint toward becoming the first Korean singles badminton player to win back-to-back Asian Games titles.

It was her second victory in a single day.

Earlier, in the round of 32 held that day, An Se-young dominated Kazakhstan's Kamila Smagulova 2-0 (21-5, 21-5).

The first match took only 20 minutes to complete. In the second game, she scored 11 consecutive points at one point, giving her opponent no chance to counterattack.

A few hours later, she stood on the court again.

Liyanage, her round of 16 opponent, is considered a star player for Sri Lankan women's badminton.

Just before the tournament, the Sri Lankan media outlet The Papare introduced Liyanage as one of the key players expected to win a medal at this Asian Games.

But the wall of being world No. 1 was too high.

An Se-young quickly built a lead from the early stages of the first game, pulling ahead to 8-1 and completely taking control of the match.

Liyanage managed to recover some points after the midway point, but An Se-young remained unfazed. She ultimately won the first game 21-9.

The second game took a slightly different turn.

Although An Se-young led 9-3, Liyanage tenaciously caught up. The score soon narrowed to 11-10, just one point apart.

The tight contest ended there.

An Se-young shifted into high gear again. After completely shutting down her opponent's scoring at 11-10, she swept up the next 10 points in a row.

In the end, the match concluded with a 21-10 victory for An Se-young.

A match that was just one point apart only minutes before ended in an instant as an 11-point margin.

Following her 20-minute victory in the first round, she did not surrender even a single game in the second match.

On the first day of individual competition, An Se-young finished both matches with 2-0 scores, once again demonstrating the power of the world No. 1.

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*This content was translated by AI.