World No. 1 women's singles badminton player An Se-young of Samsung Life Insurance defeated China's Chen Yufei to advance to the Singapore Open final.
An defeated fourth-ranked Chen Yufei 2-1 (20-22, 21-12, 21-15) in a closely contested 1-hour-23-minute semifinal match at the 2026 Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Super 750 Singapore Open held in Singapore on Thursday.
An, who had once struggled against Chen to the point that the Chinese player was called her "nemesis," also shook off the disappointment of last year's quarterfinal loss at the same tournament. She now leads the head-to-head record 16-14 and has won five of their last six matches.
An appeared to struggle physically throughout the match. During the second game, she was seen breathing heavily and asking the referee for something. But she remained composed, maintaining her trademark focus to turn the match around.
The first game was tightly contested. An jumped out to a 10-5 lead but conceded five straight points to let her opponent back in. After a deuce battle, she narrowly dropped the opening game 20-22.
The counterattack began in the second game. She shifted the momentum with aggressive play. Trailing 4-5, she won four straight points to take control and maintained her lead steadily from there. Notably at 18-11, she displayed her veteran composure by diving for a defensive shot and then calmly letting Chen's diagonal attack drift out of bounds.
After taking the second game 21-12, An carried her momentum into the deciding third game. She seized control early with a 6-1 lead, and as Chen's unforced errors mounted, An stretched the gap to 11-4 heading into the interval.
Chen later closed the gap to 13-12 but could not complete the comeback. An ramped up her attacks again, scoring five consecutive points to extend the lead to 18-12 and effectively sealing the match.
An will face Japan's Akane Yamaguchi in the final. World No. 3 Yamaguchi reached the final by defeating world No. 2 Wang Zhiyi of China 2-1 (21-13, 17-21, 21-15) in the other semifinal. An leads Yamaguchi 17-15 in their head-to-head record.
