It was presupposed to be the primary 12 months when ladies’s singles on the All England would really feel the absence of legends like Tai Tzu-ying and Carolina Marin, misplaced to retirements and ravaged knees. A bunch of former champions – Chen Yufei, Nozomi Okuhara and Akane Yamaguchi – have been fading earlier than watching eyes, and churns of transitions like these take a toll on high quality of contests. However An Se-young, the Korean Olympic champion and compulsive winner of most titles on the circuit, got here into the Birmingham last, telling herself the crown needed to be fought for, that each one her nice achievements have been underneath lock and key, and this week was a race to the summit, from scratch.
Chinese language badminton didn’t disappoint. It didn’t let the ball, née shuttle, drop on the breathtaking legacy of ladies’s singles over the previous decade. Wang Zhi Yi, world No 2, and sure Chinese language contender for LA Olympics, arrived to combat for that crown. To place up a grand present that makes ladies’s singles the show-stopper, 12 months after 12 months. In 95 minutes of essentially the most immersive badminton, with crispest high quality of strokes from each ladies, the finalists ensured that the golden age needn’t in reality come to a halt or grow to be a single-player monopoly.
“Sure, I’m the King now,” Se-young declared after the 13-21, 21-18, 21-18 titanic battle which jogged recollections of THAT Sindhu-Okuhara last from Glasgow. The Korean was 17-18 down and three factors away from shedding within the second set. However the rallies – a number of 40+ pictures – saved rolling in, and it was sheer willpower to not enable the shuttle to hit the ground, because the Chinese language retrieved magically, and the Korean refused to fade out even when trailing for giant components.
A battle of wills!
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Se-young was rumoured to be affected by an sickness, however although her shuttles routinely sailed lengthy and large and critiques got here undone, she saved snapping on the taller Zhi Yi’s heels.
“I belief myself. No pondering. Simply hold going. Simply hold going,” Se-young would clarify later. The plan was sensible in its simplicity, like a easy geometric hypotenuse. Se-young made Zhi Yi, who isn’t dangerous at retrieving low in any respect, shuttle throughout the diagonal over and over. The far forehand on the appropriate again nook and the backhand on the forecourt lunge left nook.
It wasn’t about yo-yoing the Chinese language who had her smashes and internet scythe winners to build up factors, when working this line. It was about convincing the Chinese language that she may retrieve the shuttle 50 instances, however Se-young will get these two nook placements pat the 51st. The to-and-fro was so attritional that at 13-13 within the decider, you questioned and knew that this is able to be precisely on knife edge even at 19-all. The 2 ladies saved buying and selling factors until 18-18, earlier than Zhi Yi lastly shanked a return from the far forehand nook. 18-19. After which tousled on the internet. 18-20. And the Chinese language was lastly tamed.
South Korea’s Younger An Se celebrates after defeating China’s Wang Zhi Yi within the ladies’s singles last match on the All England Open Badminton Championships on the Utilita Area in Birmingham, England, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Picture/Rui Vieira)
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