Ahn Se-young, the world's No. 1 player, has won two consecutive group qualifiers with perfect performance '8'
Aug 01, 2024
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Ahn Se-young beat France's Qu Shefei 2-0 (21-5 21-7) in the second Group A match of the women's singles qualifying round for the 2024 Paris Olympics at Port Drachapel Stadium in Paris, France on the 1st (Korea time). Ahn Se-young confirmed her advance to the quarterfinals by winning the group. A total of 39 players will participate in the women's singles in this tournament, with 13 groups of three from each group. The first place in each group will advance to the round of 16. Ahn Se-young, the No. 1 seed, did not play in the round of 16, but immediately reached the quarterfinals tournament, confirming her advance to the quarterfinals early on.
From the 2012 London Games to the 2021 Tokyo Games, Korean badminton is aiming for the best record ever at the Paris Olympics. South Korea, which has a total of 12 players including men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles, is showing off its good skills to make all of the top 10 in the world rankings except for men's singles.
Ahn Se-young is at the center. Ahn is currently No. 1 in women's singles at the Badminton World Federation (BWF). He is the world's top ranker who has appeared for the first time in 27 years since Bae Soo-hyun. Ahn Se-young won two gold medals in the women's individual and team events at the last Hangzhou Asian Games with a different level of performance. There was also a medal. He suffered from aftereffects for a while due to a right knee injury suffered in the final of the Hangzhou Asian Games. Ahn Se-young, who focused on rehabilitation, fortunately recovered quickly. Expectations for the Olympic gold medal were raised by winning and finishing second place in the recent Singapore Open and Indonesia Open, respectively.
The first game was a bit of a struggle. On the 28th, he beat 74th-ranked Koviyana Nalvantova of Bulgaria 2-0 in the world. The content was not very good. Ahn Se-young, who couldn't play after the Indonesian Open final seven weeks ago, seemed to have a hard time finding a real sense. Frequent mistakes prevented the gap from widening. Fortunately, in the second game, he scored zero and showed off his original skills. He recovered the sharpness of his stroke and won a great victory.
After the game, Ahn Se-young `was very nervous and wandered around a lot. I'm ashamed that I can't show 70% of my skills. "I'll make it better and better." My eyes became moist as I felt mixed emotions on the Olympic stage, which I stepped back on in three years. Ahn Se-young said "I don't know what this feeling is. He said, `I hope this is a good stimulus.'
It went as I wished. Ahn performed well in the second game. Ahn Se-young, who gave up the first point in the first set, immediately turned the game around 4-1. In a 5-2 situation, he scored with an exquisite hairpin. The in-and-out judgments, which were disappointing in the first game, were also accurate. He kept pushing the opponent under pressure, widening the score gap. They led by 15–4. The home team fans cheered, but Ahn Se-young was not shaken. Showing the difference in skills, he took the first set in 21-5 and 14 minutes.
In the second set, Ahn Se-young's stroke became sharper. After winning the first point, he scored five points to take a 5-0 lead. 7-4, when the opponent's pursuit was increasing, the atmosphere was brought back with a nice diagonal shot. led 11–4. It was a dead end. I kept adding points. The opponent was tied at four points until Ahn Se-young scored 16 points. The opponent added a little more points, but Ahn Se-young accumulated the points faster. In the end, he even brought in the second set with a score of 21-7 to seal the victory.
For Ahn, who has won the World Championship, Asian Championship and Asian Games, the Paris Olympics are the final puzzle of the Grand Slam. Ahn said "I will make sure that I can completely fill the last puzzle of Grand Slam. As much as we prepared hard in hot weather, we will try to finish it romantically." Ahn is approaching that goal one step at a time.
vanbasten@sportschosun.com
