South Korea’s An Se Younger smashed her option to the ladies’s singles title on the All England Open badminton championships on Sunday, beating Tokyo 2020 Olympics gold medallist Chen Yu Fei of China.
To the thunderous roar of her identify, An beat 25-year-old Chen 21-17 10-21 21-19 in a battling girls’s last that at occasions had Chen on her knees and An skidding throughout the court docket on her abdomen greater than as soon as to make a shot.
“I’m so tremendously happy,” mentioned An, 21, who had knocked Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan out within the semi-finals on Saturday.
“Every game that has given me experience has led me to this one… This is a historical moment in my career – this is an opportunity to grow.” It was touch-and-go for An within the second half of the ultimate recreation, with Chen urgent with aggressive smashes and good backhands.
The All England occasion, with greater than 155 matches and over 50 hours of badminton, contributes in the direction of potential Olympics qualification, with rankings introduced on April 30, deciding which gamers will go to the Paris Video games in 2024.
China has dominated Olympic badminton for the reason that sport made its debut on the Video games in Barcelona in 1992, with 47 medals together with 20 golds.
In an all-South Korean girls’s doubles match earlier on Sunday, Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong defeated Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee 21-5, 21-12. China beat South Korea within the blended doubles last 21-16, 16-21, 21-12.
Afterward Sunday, Li Shi Feng will play fellow Chinese language shuttler Shi Yu Qi within the males’s last.
