An Se-young retains China Masters badminton crown for seventh title of 2026
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South Korea’s An Se-young at the women's singles semi-final at the China Masters on Sept 5. She defeated Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki in the final the next day.
PHOTO: AFP
World No. 1 An Se-young sealed her seventh crown of 2026 by retaining the China Masters badminton title on Sept 6, placing her on course to surpass her record-equalling tally of 11 individual crowns in 2025.
At the Shenzhen Arena in Guangdong, the South Korean defeated Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki 21-17, 21-6 in her eighth final of the year.
Not only did An become the first shuttler to prevail at the Super 750 tournament three times in a row but, more impressively, the 24-year-old also did not drop a single game for a second consecutive competition.
Continuing her imperious form from her victorious world championship campaign in New Delhi, where she had won all six of her matches in straight games, An did not concede a game in all five matches in Shenzhen.
“I’m so proud of myself. I’m really pleased with the result and I feel so happy,” said An, whose only defeat this year came at the All England Open final in March, when she lost to China’s Wang Zhiyi.
World No. 9 Miyazaki, who was bidding to end a 7-0 losing record against An, put her opponent under pressure early on with her speedy attacks and disrupted her rhythm.
But the 20-year-old Japanese was left with a mountain to climb as An surged to an 8-0 lead in the second game, going on to clinch the title and bag US$87,500 (S$111,000) in prize money.
“Tomoka put me under a lot of pressure, which left me a bit flustered,” An admitted. “But I tried to calmly maintain my pace and tried not to rush.”
With one title defence completed, An has set her sights on another.
She heads home to prepare for the Sept 19-Oct 4 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, where she will be aiming to become the first South Korean shuttler to retain the Asiad crown since mixed doubles duo Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min in 2002.
But she is not just eyeing individual glory.
“I’m willing to give everything for the team title,” she added. “The most important thing is to stay healthy and compete without injuries.”
World No. 1 mixed doubles pair Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping will also be hoping that their China Masters victory augurs well ahead of the continental meet.
The Chinese duo defeated 85th-ranked Hoo Pang Ron and Lai Pei Jing of Malaysia 21-19, 21-16, earning US$92,500 in prize money as they bounced back from their world championship final upset by France’s Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue in August.
Men’s doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty of India finally prevailed in the China Masters final, following defeats in the 2025 and 2023 title-deciders.
The world No. 5 pair came from behind to defeat 70th-ranked He Jiting and Ren Xiangyu of China 11-21, 21-13, 21-17.
In the women’s doubles final, world No. 42 Sumire Nakade and Miyu Takahashi of Japan collected their fifth title of 2026 after a 21-18, 21-18 win over China’s 55th-ranked Bao Lijing and Cao Zihan.
Meanwhile, in the first singles final between Hong Kong players in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour era, men’s world No. 32 Jason Gunawan defeated 25th-ranked Lee Cheuk Yiu 21-9, 21-16.
The duo had overcome higher-ranked opponents to reach the title decider, with Gunawan coming from behind to beat world No. 5 Anders Antonsen of Denmark 15-21, 22-20, 21-16, while Lee beat French world No. 2 Christo Popov 21-15, 21-19.