He avenged his defeat at the World Championships Ahn Se-young Goes to the Final of the Revenge on Chen Yu-pei...A thrilling reversal drama after a full set of bloodshed
Oct 25, 2025
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World No. 1 Ahn Se-young won the game score 2-1 (23-21, 18-21, 21-16) in the women's singles quarter-final of the '2025 French Open Badminton Championship (Super 750)' held in Semyon, France on the 25th (Korea time).
As a result, Ahn Se-young is aiming for her second consecutive victory following the Danish Open last week, and she balanced her opponent with 14 wins and 14 losses against Chen Yu-fei.
Chen Yufei defeated Akane Yamaguchi (Japan), the world's third-place winner, in the quarterfinals of this tournament and reached the semifinals to play a return match against An Se-young.
Ahn was caught by Chen Yu-fei in August and was eliminated in the semi-finals of the '2025 World Badminton Championships'. It's a revenge match for the first time in three months.
Ahn Se-young got off to a fresh start with a thrilling come-from-behind victory in the first game in the match.
Ahn Se-young, who actually played seesaw games from the beginning of the game and entered the interval 11-9, allowed an 11-12 upset with three consecutive runs. However, at 16-18, he turned around again with the strength of four consecutive goals at a time when the loss was about to thicken, and won 23-21 after entering deuce's bloody battle at 20-20.
In the second game, Chen Yufei's counterattack was sharp. Ahn Se-young scored the first point first, but lost three runs to be inferior, and lost four consecutive points, making it 3-8 at one point.
However, it is not the world's strongest to suffer. Ahn Se-young immediately hit the interval with eight consecutive points, successfully reversing the opponent in an 11-8, instant.
After the interval break, Ahn Se-young's progress toward the finals did not stop. Chen Yu-pei chased one point first, but Ahn Se-young immediately responded and played a seesaw game to keep the close lead.
There was also a crisis. When allowing the tie to 17-17, he showed an exhausted expression as if due to physical burden, and failed to hit the end line, allowing a 17-18 reversal. Then, Chen Yufei's elaborate straight smash widened the score gap. In the end, Ahn Se-young made back-to-back misses at the last minute, bringing the game to square one.
Ahn Se-young, who had been causing concern since the second half of the second game, continued her struggle with her energy level falling significantly, bending down and exhaling whenever she had time in the third game. But Chen Yu-fei is also tired. While maintaining a three-point lead, he managed to take an interval break of 11-10 as he fell behind Ahn Se-young's pursuit.
After the break, Ahn tied the game again, inducing an opponent's miss shot at 13-13, turning it around for the first time in three games. Since then, the one-point lead and tie have been repeated. Ahn Se-young finally began to win from 14-15, and Ahn Se-young scored four consecutive points and ran 20-16 with a bold attack that squeezed the remaining power, including an exquisite hairpin. In the final game point, An Se-young knocked Chen Yu-fei to the court with an elaborate diagonal attack.
Ahn Se-young will play the final match against Wang Zhi (China, No. 2 in the world), who was the winner of the Danish Open just before the 26th.
In her 12th international competitions this year, Ahn has won eight gold medals, including the Malaysian Open (Super 1000), the Indian Open (Super 750), the Orléan Masters (Super 300), the Jeon Young Open (Super 1000), the Indonesian Open (Super 1000), the Japanese Open (Super 750), the Chinese Masters (Super 750), and the Danish Open (Super 750). This is the 13th edition of the French Open.
Reporter Choi Man-sik cms@sportschosun.com
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
