An Se-young and the World No. 2 Are This Far Apart: The 'Queen's' Dominance Exceeds the Gap Between 2nd and 4th Place... Leading Yamaguchi by 18,561 Points

*This content was translated by AI.View Original

The dominance of An Se-young (24, Samsung Life), the 'Queen' of Korean badminton, is also evident in the world rankings.

On the 10th (Korean time), the Asian Olympic Council (OCA) highlighted An Se-young's performance in winning her 11th title of the season at the Korea Open and introduced the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings.

An Se-young, ranked No. 1 in women's singles, has 122,287 ranking points. She leads Yamaguchi Akane (103,726 points), her rival and Japan's flagship star who is ranked No. 2 in the world, by 18,561 points.

Looking at the point differences between Yamaguchi and the players chasing her gives a sense of just how far ahead An Se-young is. The gap between Yamaguchi and No. 3 Wang Zhiyi (China, 101,389 points) is 2,337 points. Even dropping down to No. 4 Chen Yufei (China, 87,351 points), the difference from Yamaguchi is 16,375 points.

In other words, the gap between No. 1 An Se-young and No. 2 Yamaguchi is larger than the gap between No. 2 Yamaguchi and No. 4 Chen Yufei.

Indonesian media outlet Disway Malang also reported on the women's singles rankings that day, evaluating that "An Se-young continues to firmly hold onto the top spot."

On the court as well, An Se-young rarely concedes victory to Yamaguchi.

On the 8th, at the Korea Open women's singles final held at the Yeosu Jinnam Gymnasium in Gwangju Metropolitan City, South Jeolla Province, An Se-young defeated Yamaguchi 2-1 (21-12, 15-21, 21-16). After winning the first game by a margin of 9 points and losing the second, she took the final game to extend her winning streak against Yamaguchi to 11 matches.

An Se-young's record this season is 71 wins and 1 loss, with a win rate of 98.6%. Her only defeat was in the All England Open final in March against Wang Zhiyi. Since then, she has won 55 consecutive matches up to the Korea Open final.

She has already collected 11 championship trophies. She has won eight times on the BWF World Tour and also stood atop the podium at the Asian Championships, the World Championships, and the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. This matches the single-season record for most wins set by Japan's men's singles star Momo-ta Kento in 2019, a feat she has achieved again following last year.

Even for such an An Se-young, there were moments during matches when she was discouraged by mistakes. However, An Se-young expressed gratitude, saying that the Korean fans who filled the Jinnam Gymnasium became a great source of strength.

According to the OCA, An Se-young said regarding winning 11 titles for two consecutive seasons, "I am proud of myself for achieving this result," adding, "I feel I have grown mentally compared to last year. I learned how to change the flow of a match even when my stamina was nearly depleted."

After taking a brief rest, An Se-young will challenge for her 12th title of the season at the BWF World Tour Finals to be held in Hangzhou, China, in December. There is one more record An Se-young can break at this tournament: the women's singles longest winning streak record (59 consecutive wins) held by Indonesian legend Susi Susanti.

Taiwan's Central News Agency also reported that "An Se-young is currently on a 55-match winning streak," noting that "if she wins all five matches from the group stage to the final at the World Tour Finals, she will set a new world record with a 60-match winning streak."

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*This content was translated by AI.View Original