▲ Ahn Se-young during the 2022 All-Young Open women's singles semi-final
Ahn Se-young (20), the ace of Korean women's badminton, lost to 'enemy' Yamaguchi Akane (Japan) in the final of the All English Open and took the runners-up.
Se-Young Ahn lost 2-0 to Yamaguchi in the women's singles final at the 2022 All English Open in Birmingham, England.
Ahn Se-young's challenge, which was aimed at a Korean player's all-time open women's singles championship for the first time in 26 years since the 1996 tournament, was thwarted at her threshold.
South Korea's Seon-ae Hwang in 1981, Yeon-ja Kim in 1986, and Su-hyeon Suh in 1996 won the women's singles at the All-Young Open.
The challenge of the Korean national team, which started to win the event for the first time in five years after Ahn Se-young's defeat in the finals in 2017 after Jang Ye-na and Lee So-hee won the women's doubles in 2017, has also been postponed to the next event.
With that match, Se-Young Ahn lost the last three matches against her arch-enemy Yamaguchi, and was pushed back to 4-7.
Ahn Se-young and Yamaguchi met for the first time at the 2019 French Open Championship.
At that time, Se-young Ahn won her first championship after defeating Yamaguchi 2-0 in the semifinals to reach the final.
After falling behind Yamaguchi 3-4, Ahn Se-young lifted the trophy and balanced her opponent's record by defeating Yamaguchi 2-0 in the final of the Indonesia Masters Badminton Championships in November last year.
However, Ahn Se-young lost to Yamaguchi in succession at the 2021 BWF World Tour Finals and the 2021 World Individual Badminton Championships held later, and she also dropped her head in the 11th match held in the final of the All English Open, the most prestigious badminton tournament.
(Photo=provided by Yonex, Yonhap News)