An Se-young, the world's top-ranked women's singles badminton player from South Korea, cruised into the gold medal match of the 19th Asian Games in China on Friday.
An knocked off world No. 5 from China, He Bingjiao, 2-0 (21-10, 21-13), in the semifinals at Binjiang Gymnasium in Hangzhou.
In Saturday's final, An will face Chen Yufei of China.
An Se-young of South Korea celebrates after defeating He Bingjiao of China in the semifinals of the women's singles badminton event at the Asian Games at Binjiang Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China, on Oct. 6, 2023. (Yonhap)
An will be going for her second gold medal in Hangzhou, after helping South Korea to the women's team title Sunday.
An is the first South Korean to reach the Asiad women's singles badminton final since Bang Soo-hyun in 1994. Bang remains the only South Korean to have won an Asian Games women's singles gold.
In the team gold medal match then, An defeated Chen 2-0 (21-12 21-13) in the opening singles match.
South Korea will also compete for the gold in the men's doubles, after Choi Sol-gyu and Kim Won-ho knocked off Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei 2-0 (21-12, 21-10) in the semifinals Friday. Choi and Kim are the first South Korean tandem in nine years to reach the men's doubles gold medal match. Their opponents will be Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty and Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy of India.
During the evening session, Baek Hana and Lee So-hee of South Korea defeated Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan 2-0 (21-14, 21-12) to advanced to the women's doubles final. Baek and Lee are the first South Korean women's doubles team to reach an Asiad gold medal match in 21 years.
Earlier Friday, South Korea earned a bronze medal in the mixed doubles after Seo Seung-jae and Chae Yu-jung lost to Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong of China 2-1 (13-21, 21-15, 21-16) in the semifinals.
Seo and Chae had defeated Zheng and Huang, world No. 1 pair, in the final of the world championships in late August, but the Chinese tandem got their revenge Friday.
Chae Yu-jung (L) and Seo Seung-jae of South Korea compete in the semifinals of the mixed doubles badminton event at the Asian Games at Binjiang Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China, on Oct. 6, 2023. (Yonhap)
There are no bronze medal matches in badminton, and both semifinals losers receive bronze medals.
Also on Friday, Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong of South Korea lost to the world No. 1 pair from China, Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, in the women's doubles semifinals by 2-1 (16-21, 21-9, 21-12).
Gold medal matches for the men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles will all take place Saturday, the penultimate day of the Asian Games.
Source: Yonhap News Agency