'60 wins, 1 loss: The god of badminton, not the queen' An Se-young takes a step toward her ninth title of the season... 'On a nine-match winning streak' to clash with Japan's Yamaguchi in the final [Danmark Open]

*This content was translated by AI.View Original

'Shuttlecock Queen' An Se-young (24, Samsung Life) is aiming for her ninth title of the season. She seeks a 10th consecutive victory over Akane Yamaguchi (Japan) and a championship win in the Denmark Open final.

On the 17th (Korean time), An Se-young defeated Nozomi Okuhara (Japan, world No. 11) in 36 minutes with a score of 2-0 (21-16, 21-8) in the women's singles semifinal of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Super 750 Denmark Open held in Odense, Denmark.

Nozomi Okuhara, ranked 11th, was no match for world No. 1 An Se-young, who advanced to the semifinals with an unstoppable momentum.

In the first game, An Se-young trailed 5-6 but scored three consecutive points before pulling away, easily defeating Okuhara. In the second game, she allowed only eight points to secure a dominant victory.

With this win, An Se-young's head-to-head record against Okuhara became a perfect 6-0. She has not lost even once in over three years since their first encounter in August 2023, showcasing the traits of an 'unsurmountable rival.'

The opponent in the final is another Japanese player, Yamaguchi. Ranked world No. 3, Yamaguchi has been a difficult opponent for An Se-young, who suffered 15 losses while recording 23 wins against her. However, looking at recent trends, the story is completely different.

An Se-young is on a nine-match winning streak against Yamaguchi. She has not lost since falling 0-2 to Yamaguchi at last year's September Suwon Victor Korea Open. Notably, they met in four finals during this streak, with An Se-young claiming the title each time while Yamaguchi had to settle for a bitter runner-up finish.

The opponent in the women's singles final of the recently concluded 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games badminton tournament was also Yamaguchi. At that time, An Se-young conceded two games but easily took the third game to achieve the first-ever back-to-back women's singles titles in Asian Games history.

If An Se-young defeats Yamaguchi to win the championship, she will lift her ninth trophy of this season. An Se-young has participated in 11 individual tournaments this season. She reached the top of the podium in all of them except for the March All England Open, where she lost to Wang Zhiyi (China) and finished as runner-up, and the Japan Open, where she withdrew in the round of 16.

An Se-young, who has firmly maintained her world No. 1 ranking since announcing the return of the queen in 2023, recorded 11 wins last year, matching the single-season record for most titles across men's and women's categories set by Japan's Momo Takahashi in 2019.

If she tops this tournament, she will lay the foundation to surpass that record. As scheduled, the season will conclude with the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals on December 9, following the French Open starting on the 20th, the Heilong Open (Germany) on the 27th, next month's Yeosu Victor Korea Open on the 3rd, Kumamoto Masters Japan on the 10th, Li-Ning Hong Kong Open on the 17th, and Syed Modi India International on the 24th.

Furthermore, An Se-young has continued her astonishing record of 60 wins and 1 loss this season, with a winning percentage of 98.4%. If she reaches the top of the podium four more times in the remaining tournaments, she could write new history in badminton.

Meanwhile, the men's doubles world No. 1 pair of Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho (both Samsung Life) failed to advance to the final after losing 0-2 (14-21, 18-21) to Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik (Malaysia) in the semifinals of this tournament. They had to accept another disappointing result after also being eliminated in the semifinals at the Asian Games.

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*This content was translated by AI.View Original