South Korean badminton is going for gold in the pairs (women’s singles and women’s doubles) at the Korea Open in Anbang.
The men’s doubles team of Kang Min-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae had to settle for bronze.
World No. 2 Ahn Se-young came from behind to defeat Chen Yuefei (No. 3) 2-1 (15-21, 21-8, 24-22) in the women’s singles semifinals of the Korea Open Badminton Championships 2023 (World Tour Super 500) at Jinnam Gymnasium in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province on Wednesday.
It was Ahn’s second consecutive title at the event after winning the title last year. She also snapped a two-game losing streak against Chen Yufei, improving her head-to-head record to 5-10.
It was a bloody, thrilling victory. It was a shaky start. Ahn battled through a tight first set before losing four straight points after 5-5.
However, Ahn seemed to warm up in the second set. In a reversal of the first set, Ahn used an overwhelming offensive attack to take a 21-8 victory to even the score and set up a fateful third set. Leading 19-16 at one point, Ahn seemed to be on the verge of victory, but Chen Yuefei fought back to force a 20-20 deuce tiebreak.
From there, it was a back-and-forth affair. After three deuces, it was Ahn who had the last word in concentration and stamina.
Ahn will play Tai Tzu-ying (Chinese Taipei – World No. 4), who defeated World No. 1 Akane Yamaguchi (JPN) 2-0 on Wednesday. Ahn leads their head-to-head record 6-2, including two straight wins.
In the women’s doubles semifinals, World No. 3 Kim So-young (Incheon International Airport) and Gong Hee-yong (Jeonbuk Bank) punched their ticket to the final with a 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 21-12) victory over Japan’s Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara (World No. 4).
It was a revenge match. Matsumoto-Nagaharajo had swept Baek Hana-Yi Sohee 2-0 in the quarterfinals the day before. Kim So-young and Gong Hee-yong avenged their defeat.
In addition, Kim So-young and Gong Hee-yong avenged their 0-2 loss in the round of 32 at the Indonesian Open in June.
Kim So-young and Gong Hee-yong will face the world No. 1 pair of Chen Jing-chen and Ji Aifan (China), who will be looking to win their first title in four years since the 2019 edition.
The final runners-up, Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae (World No. 11 Samsung Life Insurance), looked like they were going to pull off an upset against World No. 1 Pajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto (Indonesia).
After taking the first set 21-17, Kang Min-hyuk and Seo Seung-jae dropped the second set 16-21 before falling 18-21 in a close third set. 스포츠토토