World No. 1 Ahn Se-young, 21, won her women’s badminton singles quarterfinal match in straight sets to move one step closer to winning a second title at the Games.
Ahn advanced to the quarterfinals of the women’s singles badminton at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games with a 2-0 (21:12/21:13) victory over Thailand’s Busan Ongvamrungpan (27) in their quarterfinal match at the Binjiang Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China on Friday.
Ahn looked a little heavy at the start of the match, but she dominated her opponent from the first game with her trademark strong defense.
The momentum carried over into the second game, which she won with ease.
Ong Bamrungpan was all smiles after conceding a point as Ahn Se-young deflected her attack. 안전토토사이트
Ahn, who had won the previous day’s round of 16 match 2-0 (21:4/21:6) in 20 minutes, showed that she is one of the strongest players in the world by finishing the match in 45 minutes.
With the bronze medal secured, Ahn will play China’s He Bingjiao (26), ranked fifth in the world, in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
There are no third- or fourth-place matches in badminton, so Ahn’s semifinal finish is enough to secure the bronze medal.
Ahn, who won the women’s team gold medal for the first time in 29 years with a 2-0, straight-sets victory over “opponent” Chen Yufei (world No. 3) in the team event on Jan. 1, will look to make it two gold medals in singles.
If Ahn wins gold in the women’s singles, she will become the first South Korean to win the women’s singles title in 29 years since Hwang Soo-hyun at the 1994 Hiroshima Games.
Meanwhile, the women’s doubles pair of Kim So-young and Gong Hee-yong (ranked third in the world), the men’s doubles pair of Choi Sol-gyu and Kim Won-ho (ranked 15th in the world), and the mixed doubles pair of Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yu-jung (ranked fourth in the world) also made it through the quarterfinals.