India Open: The Graph Keeps Rising for An Se Young
It isn’t often that Akane Yamaguchi's game unravels in the third game of a long match. Yet, faced with the unrelenting consistency and defensive stonewalling of An Se Young, the two-time world champion fell apart in…
· DEV SUKUMAR
It isn’t often that Akane Yamaguchi's game unravels in the third game of a long match. Yet, faced with the unrelenting consistency and defensive stonewalling of An Se Young, the two-time world champion fell apart in the latter stages of the final at the YONEX SUNRISE India Open 2023.
An Se Young’s rising career graph saw another spike, with the Korean striking back after four straight losses to Yamaguchi. That, and her semifinal defeat of He Bing Jiao for the first time, meant that the Korean has taken a few more strides towards dominating women’s singles, which otherwise has been a closely-contested battleground between the top eight or so players.
On Sunday, after an even second game, Yamaguchi’s game fell quickly. Was it the cumulative physical effort of the last two weeks, or had An Se Young made a dent in the mental infallibility of the world No.1?