Following the world's No. 1 trio, Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, Ahn Se-young also made it to the round of 16 at the Chinese Open...Super 1000 Grand Slam + 2 consecutive wins in a row

Jul 23, 2025

Following the world's No. 1 trio, Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, Ahn Se-young also made it to the round of 16 at the Chinese Open...Super 1000 Grand Slam 2 consecutive wins in a row
Se-young Ahn won the Japanese Open. Photo courtesy of the Badminton Korea Association



Following the world's No. 1 trio, Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, Ahn Se-young also made it to the round of 16 at the Chinese Open...Super 1000 Grand Slam 2 consecutive wins in a row
Korea's badminton pride Seo Seung-jae (28) and Kim Won-ho (26) and Ahn Se-young (23, Samsung Life Insurance) took a pleasant first step toward Super1000 Sweep.

The so-called `world No. 1 trio' won the first match of the '2025 Chinese Open Badminton Championship (Super 1000)" held in Changzhou, China on the 23rd.

Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho are trying to win their second consecutive international championship following the Japanese Open (Super 750) with Ahn Se-young, and they have faced double celebrations ahead of their first appearance in the Chinese Open.




In the world ranking renewed by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on the 22nd, it jumped from third place to first place with 96,805 points, beating Aaron Chia-So-ik (89,870 points in Malaysia).

In the final of the Japanese Open last week, Kotsupei-Nur Lee Ju-din (Malaysia), who Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho made as the winner of the championship, fell from first place to third (89,440 points) in the aftermath of the defeat.

It is the first time in nine years that Korean badminton men's doubles ranked first in the world since Lee Yong-dae (37, Yonex Playing Coach) and Yoo Yeon-seong (39, President of the Korea Federation of Business Badminton) in 2009.




Following the world's No. 1 trio, Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, Ahn Se-young also made it to the round of 16 at the Chinese Open...Super 1000 Grand Slam 2 consecutive wins in a row
Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, who won the Japanese Open. Photo courtesy of the Badminton Korea Association
Kim Won-ho said, `I am honored and grateful to have achieved my dream since childhood,' and Seo Seung-jae said, `The world No. 1 was not achieved alone, but it was possible because many people around me helped me. I'll work harder to show you better performances," he said.

Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho celebrated their world No. 1 by beating Xie Haonan and Zheng Wei-han of China 2-0 (21-14, 21-14) in the first match of the Chinese Open held on the same day.

For Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, the world's strongest team, the 29th-ranked opponent was so-called a piece of cake. Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, who met and defeated in the quarterfinals for the first time when winning the Jeon Young Open (Super 1000) in March, led the game as if showing off their world No. 1 prowess.




Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, who ran away and chased with 8-8 and 11-10, succeeded in gaining the lead by scoring five points in a row after 12-11. In the second game, he also scored five consecutive points after 10-10 to break his opponent's willingness to chase, and again scored three consecutive points to run 19-12 to seal the victory early.

Following the world's No. 1 trio, Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho, Ahn Se-young also made it to the round of 16 at the Chinese Open...Super 1000 Grand Slam 2 consecutive wins in a row
In the women's singles round of 32, Ahn came from behind to win 2-1 (13-21, 21-3, 21-10) against the world's 16th-ranked Michelle Lee of Canada. Ahn Se-young, who was careless and gave up one game, was not much of a crisis for Ahn, who ran unbeaten (6 wins) in the previous match.

In the second game, Michelle Lee made a series of mistakes from the beginning, and at the same time, Ahn Se-young finally regained her performance, leading to a one-sided trend of overwhelming Ahn Se-young. In the end, Ahn Se-young, who balanced two games with a complete victory that gave up only three points, advanced to the round of 16 by lightly picking up three games.

Now, the eyes of the world's No. 1 trio are on the first true record 'Super 1000 Grand Slam'. It will dominate all four 'Super 1000' competitions to be held this year until the China Open. 'Super 1000' is the top-level competition with the most ranking points and prize money among the BWF World Tours, and includes the Malaysian Open, promoted in 2023, the Jeon Young Open, the Indonesian Open, and the Chinese Open.

'Super 1000 Grand Slam' is not an official BWF record, but it has never been done in history. Since the start of the BWF World Tour in 2018, there have been two sweeps when there were three tournaments a year. The main characters are Zheng Tsuwei-Hwildlife Choongjo (China) in the mixed doubles in 2019 and Nami Matsuyama-Shida Chiharu Jo (Japan) in the women's doubles in 2022. Since then, Viktor Axelsen (Denmark) of the men's singles has won four competitions, but it was recorded from 2022-2023.

Meanwhile, men's doubles Kang Min-hyuk (Sangmu) and Ki Dong-ju (Incheon International Airport), mixed doubles Wang Chan (Sangmu) and Jung Na-eun (Hwasun County Office) also joined the round of 16.





This article was translated by Naver AI translator.