World No. 1 An Se-young advances smoothly to the Asian Games badminton quarterfinals.

World No. 1 An Se-young won twice on Sept. 26 to reach the women’s singles quarterfinals at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, beating Kazakhstan’s Kamila Smagulova and Sri Lanka’s Ranithma Liyanage in straight games. The matches were scheduled on the same day because the tournament compressed its individual events, but An completed them in about 20 and 35 minutes, respectively. She is seeking to become the first women’s singles badminton player to win titles at consecutive Asian Games after taking gold at the 2022 Games. South Korea also sent three doubles pairs through to the quarterfinals, including world No. 1 men’s pair Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho and world No. 2 women’s pair Lee So-hee and Baek Ha-na.
South Korea’s third doubles pair to reach the quarterfinals was men’s pair Kim Min-hyeok and Ki Dong-joo, who beat Singapore’s Wesley Koh and Goh Jun-suke in 38 minutes.
An entered the Asian Games with a 98.1% season win rate, having won 53 matches and lost one.
South Korea had earned bronze in the preceding team event after losing to Japan; An had won both team and singles gold at the 2022 Hangzhou Games.
In her match against Liyanage, An turned an 11-10 second-game score into a 21-10 win by taking the next 10 points in a row.
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