South Korea's women's badminton team is heating up Japan. At the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Korea advanced to the finals in both women's singles and doubles, where it will compete for gold against Japan and China, respectively.
An Se-young of Samsung Life Insurance, the world's top-ranked women's singles player, beat Chen Yufei of China, ranked fourth, 2-0 (21-5, 21-12) in the semifinal at Ichinomiya Municipal Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture on the 28th to reach the final. After her tearful victory over Chen at the 2023 Hangzhou Games, which she won while playing through a knee injury, An has now proved the authority of her No. 1 ranking and put herself in position to win a second consecutive Asian Games title.
Chen once handed An seven straight defeats and had been her nemesis, but An dominated the court this time. Chen collapsed in 40 minutes without mounting a real counterattack. An seized control early in the first game with nine consecutive points, then drew errors from Chen and closed out the game after conceding just five points. In the second game she allowed Chen to level at 6-6 but immediately reeled off five straight points and never relinquished the lead. The win gave An five consecutive victories over Chen and an 18-14 career head-to-head advantage.
"Chen can surge back at any moment, so I couldn't let my guard down until the end," An said after the match. "I think my aggressive play worked well."
An's opponent in the final on the 29th is Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, ranked third. If An wins, she will become the first player in Asian Games badminton history to win consecutive women's singles gold medals.
An has won her last eight meetings with Yamaguchi and leads the head-to-head series 22-15. She also beat Yamaguchi 2-1 (21-9, 18-21, 21-11) in the first singles match of the team event semifinal.
Asked about her bid for a first back-to-back singles title, An said, "It would carry great meaning if I set the record, but playing the way I want to play comes first. If I can play aggressively and with confidence, I will be satisfied."
Good news also came in women's doubles. Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee of Incheon International Airport, ranked second in the world, beat Kie Nakanishi and Rin Uesaka of Japan, ranked seventh, 2-0 (21-13, 21-12) in the semifinal on the strength of tight coordination and steady match management. The pair earned the chance to compete for gold 24 years after Ra Kyung-min and Lee Kyung-won won the title at the 2002 Busan Games.
The doubles final, also on the 29th, pits them against world No. 1 Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning of China. The matchup is daunting: the second-ranked Korean pair once lost five straight to Liu and Tan. But they regained confidence at the recent world championships, where they won and claimed Korea's first women's doubles title there in 31 years. Baek and Lee also took silver in the final of the 2023 Hangzhou Games after losing to Chinese pair Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, and they are determined to avenge that defeat against a Chinese pair at this tournament.
