All England: An Se Young Nails It
And so, 27 years since Korea last had a women’s singles champion at the All England, An Se Young replicated the feat of her illustrious predecessor Bang Soo Hyun.
· DEV SUKUMAR
The 21-year-old’s third title from her fifth successive final this year was achieved with a composed takedown of Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei. In a contest between two of the most stable defensive players in the world, An showed the virtues of having added to her attacking repertoire, injecting pace at the right moments to gain critical shifts in momentum.
Chen made a sensational recovery from 13-17 to 17-all in the third and then saved two match points, before An’s smash to the body made her only the fourth Korean women’s singles winner of the championships.
Particularly impressive was that had been no dip in physical intensity, despite having spent 82 minutes on court Saturday evening in a tense thriller against Tai Tzu Ying.