1st seed, round of 16 bye-bye… quarterfinals likely to be first hurdle
If you advance to the finals, you may face your fateful rival, Cheon Wei-fei.
An Se-young competing in the Paris Olympic badminton women’s singles. Yonhap News
World No. 1 women’s badminton player An Se-young (22, Samsung Life Insurance) has been seeded No. 1 in the singles at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
According to the Korea Badminton Association on the 15th, Ahn Se-young has been placed in Group A and will face world No. 53 Qi Xuefei (France) and No. 76 Kalojana Nalvantova (Bulgaria). It appears that Ahn Se-young will easily advance to the round of 16.
The first hurdle in the ‘Golden Journey’ is expected to be the quarterfinals.
An Se-young, who is scheduled to receive a bye in the round of 16, is likely to face Akane Yamaguchi (Japan, world No. 5) in Group C in the quarterfinals.
Yamaguchi was the player who held the world number one ranking before An Se-young, but until early last year, An Se-young was behind in their head-to-head record with 5 wins and 11 losses.
After that, as Ahn Se-young fully blossomed her skills, the world rankings were reversed, and her career record was adjusted to 10 wins and 13 losses.
However, they are not an easy opponent to watch, having recorded one win and one loss in two matches this year.
If Ahn Se-young defeats Yakaguchi, she is expected to face world number 3 Tai Tzu-ying (Taiwan) in the semifinals. Ahn Se-young has a large lead in the head-to-head record (12 wins, 3 losses), including 2 wins (undefeated) this year.
Of course, there is a possibility that Kim Ga-eun (26, Samsung Life Insurance) will defeat Tai Tzu-ying in the quarterfinals and face off against Ahn Se-young in the semifinals.
If An Se-young advances to the finals, it is predicted that she will have another fateful match with the world’s second-ranked Chen Yufei (China). Chen Yufei is seeded second.
An Se-young, who lost to Chen Yufei in the round of 32 at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games and the quarterfinals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, took revenge on Chen Yufei in the final at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and won a valuable gold medal.
Although Ahn Se-young has a better overall record of 8 wins and 12 losses, except for the 7 consecutive losses at the beginning, Ahn Se-young has the upper hand.
The two shared one win and one loss in the Singapore Open and Indonesia Open, which were preliminary matches for the Olympics early last month.
2024-07-16 00:11:08
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