Samsung Life shuttler eyes first-ever back-to-back women's singles title Tuesday

South Korea's An Se-young points to the national flag after defeating China's Chen Yufei 2-0 in the women's singles semifinal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held Monday at Ichinomiya City Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. [Yonhap]
South Korea's An Se-young points to the national flag after defeating China's Chen Yufei 2-0 in the women's singles semifinal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held Monday at Ichinomiya City Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. [Yonhap]

Badminton queen An Se-young of Samsung Life Insurance cruised past longtime rival Chen Yufei of China to advance to the final of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

An dismantled world No. 4 Chen 2-0 (21-5, 21-12) in the women's singles semifinal Monday at Ichinomiya City Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

The match lasted just 40 minutes. Chen had once strung together seven consecutive wins against An, but she could not find her footing on the day. An has now won five straight meetings against her rival.

The first game was one-sided from the start. An reeled off nine consecutive points to seize control early, forcing errors from Chen and conceding just five points before closing out the game 21-5.

In the second game, Chen clawed back to 6-6 before An rattled off five straight points to pull away again. Steady defense and quick court coverage kept Chen's attacks at bay as An wrapped up the match 21-12.

An has been dominant throughout the women's singles draw at these Games. She dispatched her round-of-32 opponent in 20 minutes, her round-of-16 opponent in 35 minutes, and world No. 5 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the quarterfinals in 33 minutes. The semifinal against Chen took just 40 minutes.

An, who swept both the team and singles titles at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, will face the winner of Tuesday's other semifinal between world No. 2 Wang Zhiyi of China and world No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan at the same venue. A victory would make her the first women's singles player in history to win back-to-back Asian Games gold medals in the event.


yjc@heraldcorp.com