World No. 1 An Se-young reaches semifinals in badminton women's singles
An Se-young of South Korea plays a shot to Akane Yamaguchi of Japan during the quarterfinals of the women's singles badminton event at the Paris Olympics at La Chapelle Arena, Aug. 3. Yonhap
World No. 1 An Se-young advanced to the semifinals of the women's singles badminton event at the Paris Olympics, Saturday, after knocking out her longtime rival from Japan.
An, the 2023 world champion, defeated Akane Yamaguchi 2-1 (15-21, 21-17, 21-8) in the quarterfinals at La Chapelle Arena in Paris.
Yamaguchi was in control of the first game, getting An to move all over the court with some deft shotmaking. Each time An got close, Yamaguchi pulled away with a series of her own winners and some errant shots by the South Korean.
An scored four straight points to get to 10-9 before Yamaguchi scored three straight. An made it a 15-14 game for Yamaguchi but then the Japanese player grabbed the next five points en route to a 21-15 win in Game 1.
An returned the favor in the second game and forced Yamaguchi to make mistakes. A 7-2 run put An ahead by 11-6, and the South Korean went up by as much as 17-11.
Yamaguchi responded with five straight points but An hung on to take the game 21-17.
The third game proved to be the easiest one for An, who had Yamaguchi on the ropes with hard winners. Yamaguchi, slowing down considerably after taking the first game, kept missing shots left and right, and An closed out the match on a Yamaguchi error. (Yonhap)