“Everyone But An Se-young Lost”: South Korean Badminton Team Soundly Beaten by Japan, Not China... [Nagoya AG]

[Financial News] Although the world's best An Se-young fought hard, she could not prevent her team's defeat. The South Korean women's national badminton team's bid for a second consecutive Asian Games team title ended in the semifinals.
South Korea's women's badminton team lost 1-3 to host Japan in the women's team semifinal at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held on Sept. 23 at Ichinomiya Municipal Gymnasium in Ichinomiya City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
South Korea had won the Asian Team Championships and World Team Championships in succession this year and was seeking its second consecutive Asian Games title after the 2022 Hangzhou Games. However, the defeat ended its hopes of reaching the final, and the team finished the tournament with a bronze medal.
South Korea's only victory came from An Se-young, who played the opening singles match. She overwhelmed world No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi 2-1 (21-9, 18-21, 21-11) to give Korea an early lead.


An Se-young overwhelmed Yamaguchi from the start of the first game with sharp attacks aimed at every corner of the court, allowing just nine points. She dropped the second game after Yamaguchi mounted a fierce comeback and An committed costly errors. But in the deciding third game, she scored six straight points from a 4-4 tie and went on to win by 10 points, benefiting from her physical advantage. With the victory, An Se-young extended her winning streak against Yamaguchi to eight matches and once again proved to be her nemesis.
However, despite An Se-young's excellent start, the remaining players fell one after another, leaving Korea disappointed. The Lee So-hee-Baek Ha-na pair, ranked No. 2 in the world in women's doubles, suffered a painful 0-2 defeat (15-21, 19-21) to the world No. 3 Yuki Fukushima-Mayu Matsumoto pair. They fought back to make it 19-19 late in the second game but ultimately could not turn the match around.
The impact of injury setbacks was fully exposed in the third singles match and the fourth doubles match.
Sim Yu-jin, ranked No. 16 in the world, took the court with ankle pain as a replacement for Kim Ga-eun, who was sidelined by a thigh injury. She took the early initiative against world No. 7 Tomoka Miyazaki but conceded points in succession as her stamina faded in the latter stages, losing 0-2 (15-21, 14-21).


With Korea on the brink of elimination, the Kim Hye-jung-Jeong Na-eun pair lost 0-2 (20-22, 16-21) to the Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi pair, ranked No. 7, in the fourth doubles match. They hastily formed a partnership with Jeong Na-eun, with whom Kim Hye-jung had previously played, after regular partner Kong Hee-yong suffered a knee injury. However, they could not overcome the effects of losing a closely contested first game that went to deuce.
Japan advanced to the final after defeating South Korea and will face China for the women's team gold medal. South Korea's men's team had also been eliminated the previous day after losing 2-3 to China in the team quarterfinals. As a result, both the men's and women's badminton team events at these Games ended disappointingly for South Korea.
[email protected] Jeon Sang-il Reporter