Korean girls’s singles champion An Se-young might need pushed out her hardest opponent on the circuit, Akane Yamaguchi, on Saturday itself on the All England.
In a no-fuss straight units win, Se-young ousted the Japanese who held a superior 14-12 face to face file towards her. The rivalry is so tight that Se-young has scored 1151 factors towards Yamaguchi, whereas the senior Japanese has exactly 1 level extra, notching 1152 towards the Korean by their careers.
So the Olympic champion and essentially the most dominant shuttler of the final two years is now up towards Wang Zhi Yi of China.
Semifinals days was a scary throwback to 2012 – a time when Chinese language shuttlers, the numerous sturdy Wangs, thronged All England finals in all classes and swept titles. Now there’s regular opposition to that dominance, and An Se-young is on the forefront of that resistance. She leads Zhi Yi 9-4 in profession head to heads, however 3 of these 4 Chinese language wins have come within the final 6 faceoffs between the 2.
Zhi Yi has narrowed the factors hole to 24, as she has 532 and the Koeean 556. Remarkably, one of many reverses Zhi Yi inflicted on Se-young got here on the Denmark finals, and the Korean is taken into account near-unbeatable on Sundays lately. Se-young additionally misplaced on the World Tour Finals to Zhi Yi, although the Korean pulled one again at Malaysia begin of this season.
The fast movers on the courtroom, those that run exceptionally effectively to retrieve and might push the tempo, have at all times troubled Se-young. Footwork is the Korean’s absolute power, however Yamaguchi and Chen Yufei have each been on an excellent keel towards her as a result of they transfer excellently on the courtroom.
Se-young isn’t notably troubled by deception (Ratchanok, 1 win, 10 losses with large level differential 436 vs 518 or Tai Tzu-ying, 3 wins, 12 losses, and PD of 623 vs 691). Energy utterly doesn’t faze her (PV Sindhu, 7-0 wins for Korean and Level differential of over 100 – 312-207).
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Although, left handers have snuck in wins towards her. Most success after Yamaguchi, Yufei was He Bingjiao (576 factors vs 525; 9-5) and Carolina Marin (462 vs 444; 6-4). She additionally has a unfavorable H2H towards her senior Sung Ji Hyun (2-3) however that’s to be anticipated in her earliest years.
The latest era hasn’t fared too effectively towards Se-young with Tomoka Miyazaki (3-0, and 147-80 on factors) and Han Yue (8-1, 460 vs 401 just about outplayed).
Wang Zhi Yi will try a Denmark encore, however is a agency underdog within the contest.