Badminton queen An Se-young needed just 39 minutes to rout a rising Chinese player.
An, the world's top-ranked women's singles player, beat Han Chenxi, ranked 33rd, 2-0 (21-14, 21-7) in the round of 16 at the 2026 Badminton World Federation World Tour Super 750 China Masters, held at Shenzhen Arena in Shenzhen, China, on the 3rd.
An, who reclaimed the world championship title in New Delhi, India, in August after a three-year gap, is chasing her seventh title of the season. A win at this tournament would give her a third consecutive China Masters crown. She took the title in both 2024 and 2025.
The two players traded points early in the first game, staying level at 3-3 in a tight opening exchange. An then reeled off seven straight points with sharp attacks and airtight defense to pull away at 10-3, and closed out the game. The second game belonged entirely to An. She led 11-5 at the interval, then ran off 10 consecutive points to stretch her lead to 14-5. From 17-7, she quickly took four more points to seal match point. The whole match took only 39 minutes.
An will face the winner of the round-of-16 match between Kim Ga-eun, ranked 12th, and Denmark's Line Christophersen, ranked 13th, in the quarterfinals. If Kim wins, the two Koreans will meet.
Should An reach the semifinals, her likely opponent is Japan's Akane Yamaguchi, ranked third. Yamaguchi lost to An in the world championship final and surrendered the world No. 2 spot to China's Wang Zhiyi, leaving her as the third seed at the China Masters. The draw therefore sets up a possible meeting with An in the semifinals rather than the final.
