South Korea's women's badminton team reclaimed the Uber Cup title for the first time in four years after defeating longtime rival China in the final of the 2026 BWF World Women's Team Championships.
The Korean team beat China 3-1 in the final held in Horsens, Denmark, on Wednesday local time.
The Uber Cup, held every two years, is the most prestigious women's team event in badminton. The competition consists of three singles matches and two doubles matches.
Having previously claimed the Uber Cup title in 2010 and 2022, Korea secured its third overall championship with this victory, its first in four years. The three titles place Korea in a tie for third place on the all-time list, behind China (16) and Japan (6).
Leading the Korean team was An Se-young (24, Samsung Life Insurance), the world's top-ranked women's singles player. An delivered a dominant performance against Wang Zhi Yi, winning 2-0 (21-10, 21-13).
With the win, An completed the tournament without dropping a single game, sweeping through three group-stage matches, the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final.
After going undefeated (8-0) against Wang Zhi Yi in their final meetings in 2025, An picked up her third win against the Chinese player this year, excluding her loss in the All England Open final. Her head-to-head record against Wang now stands at 20-5.
The victory also helped An put past Uber Cup disappointments behind her. In her first appearance at the 2022 tournament, Korea defeated China to lift the trophy, but An lost her opening match to Chen Yu Fei 1-2. At the 2024 tournament, she missed the event with an injury, and the team was eliminated by Indonesia in the semifinals, finishing third and failing to defend back-to-back titles.
Korea faced a setback when the first doubles pair of Lee So-hee and Jeong Na-eun lost 0-2 (15-21, 12-21) to Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning.
But Kim Ga-eun turned the tide in the second singles match, beating Chen Yu Fei 2-0 (21-19, 21-15). Kim relentlessly pressured the top-ranked Chen throughout the match to secure the win.
The winning blow was delivered by the second doubles pair of Kim Hye-jeong and Baek Ha-na. Although they dropped the first game to Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian, they won the next two games in succession to clinch the title.
