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An Se-young advances to semifinals at Korea Open and closes in on 8th int'l title of '25

Published: 26 Sep. 2025, 19:55

An Se-young of South Korea celebrates her win over Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan in the women's singles quarterfinals at the Korea Open badminton tournament at Suwon Gymnasium in Suwon, Gyeonggi on Sept. 26. [YONHAP]

World No. 1 An Se-young reached the semifinals of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour event in Korea on Friday, moving within two wins of claiming her eighth international title of the season.

An defeated Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan 2-0 (21-7, 21-17) in 41 minutes in the women's singles quarterfinals at the Korea Open at Suwon Gymnasium in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul.

An was hardly challenged in the first game. Things were closer in the next game, when Miyazaki battled back from a 15-11 deficit to draw even at 15 apiece. From there, An pulled away with four consecutive points and closed out the 10th-ranked player.

Without a trio of Chinese players Wang Zhiyi (world No. 2), Han Yue (No. 3) and Chen Yufei (No. 5) in action, An is considered a heavy favorite to win what will be in the third Korea Open title. She previously won the BWF event on home soil in 2022 and 2023.

In the semifinals, An will play world No. 6 Pornpawee Chochuwong. An has won all 11 meetings against the Thai player over their careers.

In the men's doubles Friday, the world No. 1 tandem of Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho got past Ren Xiangyu and Xie Haonan of China 2-0 (24-22, 21-11) in the quarterfinals.

Seo and Kim trailed 12-8 in the first game before pulling into a 14-14 tie and then taking a 17-16 lead. After some back and forth, the Koreans won the final two points.

An Se-young of South Korea plays against Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan in the women's singles quarterfinals at the Korea Open badminton tournament at Suwon Gymnasium in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on Sept. 26 [YONHAP]

They had a much easier time in the next game, winning the first five points en route to a convincing win.

They will take on Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in the semifinals.

Seo and Kim combined have seven international titles this year, including their first world championship together in August.

In other matches on Friday, the second-seeded women's doubles duo of Kong Hee-yong and Kim Hye-jeong beat Rui Hirokami and Sayaka Hobara of Japan 2-1 (21-16, 15-21, 21-19) to move on to the semifinals.

Kong and Kim will next meet their fellow Korean team, the third-seeded Baek Hana and Lee So-hee, with a ticket to the final up for grabs. Baek and Lee knocked off Hsieh Pei-Shan and Hung En-Tzu of Chinese Taipei 2-0 (21-17, 21-17) in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Yonhap