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 the winner of the other semifinal match between Chen Yufei of China and Aya Ohori of Japan, scheduled for Friday evening.
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.
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.
There are no bronze medal matches in badminton, and both semifinals losers receive bronze medals.
Later Friday, South Korea will have two teams competing on opposite sides of the bracket in the women's doubles semifinals: Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong against Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan, and then Baek Hana and Lee So-hee against Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan.
In the men's doubles semifinals, Choi Sol-gyu and Kim Won-ho will be up against Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei later Friday.
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