Latest news with #AnSe-young
News.com.au
28-04-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
‘It feels amazing to be back' – No.1 An Se-young makes winning injury return at Sudirman Cup
'It feels amazing to be back' - No.1 An Se-young makes winning injury return at Sudirman Cup
Straits Times
24-04-2025
- Sport
- Straits Times
An Se-young and Shi Yuqi back to defend KFF Singapore Open titles
South Korea's women's singles world No. 1, world and Olympic champion An Se-young has been in imperious form in 2025, winning all 20 matches and four tournaments she has played in. ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE SINGAPORE – Still unbeaten in 2025, South Korea's women's singles world No. 1 and Olympic champion An Se-young will return to defend her KFF Singapore Badminton Open title from May 27 to June 1 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The 23-year-old has been a dominant force in the sport since becoming world champion and Asian Games gold medallist in 2023, in which she won 10 titles. In the following year, she became Olympic champion at Paris 2024 despite injury and run-ins with the Badminton Korea Association. Remarkably, after losing the final at the 2024 BWF World Tour Finals, An has won all 20 matches in 2025 to clinch four straight titles on the BWF World Tour, including the All England Open on March 16 despite not being at her physical best. The world champion said then: '(The All England Open win) showed me the direction I need to go. Winning this year's All England has significant meaning to my career. By not giving up, I learnt that I could be very strong. I'm very proud of myself.' Men's singles world No. 1 Shi Yuqi of China will also be back to defend his title, with form on his side, having won the All England Open and Malaysia Open, and reaching the Indonesia Masters semi-final. However, his fine run was stopped at the Badminton Asia Championships quarter-final stage when he lost to Loh Kean Yew. The 11th-ranked Singaporean, who leads home hopes, has been in resurgent form in recent months, making it to at last the last eight in four out of seven events in 2025, including the German Open final and Badminton Asia Championships semi-finals. The 27-year-old, who reached the quarter-final of his home open in 2024, said: 'I'm always proud to compete in Singapore. The cheers of fellow Singaporeans and that electrifying energy always give me that extra boost. I'm excited for the KFF Singapore Badminton Open and can't wait to play my best in front of the home crowd.' Other Singaporeans in the main draw include men's singles world No. 23 Jason Teh, German Open champion and women's singles world No. 12 Yeo Jia Min, as well as 27th-ranked mixed doubles pair Jin Yujia and Terry Hee, who will combine at the event for the first time since the latter's wife Jessica Tan retired earlier in the year. Hee said: 'This is our first year partnering together and I'm thrilled that we qualified for a Super 750 event right here in Singapore. Having my parents in the stands – and also my wife Jessica this year – cheering us on with all the other Singaporeans makes it extra special for me.' While there are a host of stars for the US$1 million (S$1.31million) tournament, including all five winners from the Badminton Asia Championships such as Thailand's men's singles world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn, some big names will be absent. These include Paris 2024 men's singles champion Viktor Axelsen and bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia. The Dane went for back surgery in April, while the Malaysian is still recovering from a right ankle ligament injury. Over 70 per cent of the tickets are sold, and daily tickets from $40 to $330 and season passes from $100 to $450 are available from Ticketmaster. As part of the SG60 celebrations, event organisers have launched 'Chase the Bus', a special campaign honouring Singapore's sporting and political milestones. Fans are encouraged to spot a SBS Transit Service 7 bus featuring Loh, Teh, Yeo and Hee along with past champions and world-class shuttlers linked to the tournament, snap creative selfies, and post them on Instagram with the hashtag #kffsbo2025chasethebus. Seven lucky winners will each receive a pair of season passes. David Lee is senior sports correspondent at The Straits Times focusing on aquatics, badminton, basketball, cue sports, football and table tennis. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Telegraph
08-04-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Kirsty Gilmour: Badminton must change rules so women are not punished for period breaks
Playing against the world No 1 is already a daunting task, let alone when your period has started only minutes before the match. Yet instead of being allowed time to deal with the situation when she faced An Se-young at the All England Open Badminton Championships last month, Kirsty Gilmour was penalised for taking more than the allocated two minutes between sets to visit the bathroom facilities. 'I was playing the world No 1 and 30 minutes before I went on the court, my period started unexpectedly,' three-time Team GB Olympian Gilmour tells Telegraph Sport. 'That's fine, I had tampons and pads and everything and I dealt with it. 'For me, the first few hours are tricky. I lost the first set and then I won the second set. Not many people have taken a set off of the world No 1 this year, she has a 20-to-zero win-to-loss ratio. So I've won the second set, but I've also been quite aware that there's some movement in my shorts. I asked the umpire if I could go to the toilet to deal with it.' Gilmour did so but was then shown a yellow card for 'delaying play' after failing to return within the allocated time period. Although the card and subsequent fine were later overturned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF), Gilmour is now urging the sport to review its rules and regulations to allow for the 'rare' occasion that an athlete will need a longer break because of their period. 'The point of this is that there's just not a protocol for it. We have protocols if you need the bathroom, we have protocols if there's a blood injury, but we don't have protocols for the middle ground of the bathroom involving blood,' she says. Gilmour does not blame the umpire nor the tournament referee, but wants the BWF to change the rules to account for these unlikely, but possible, circumstances. 'It happens so rarely. I've been playing for 13 years, and I've never been caught short on court before,' Gilmour adds. 'I don't think it's a case of we need to be careful of people using it as a delay tactic or something. 'There's just not a person that has a period in the world that wants to stand in front of a few thousand people and tell a person with a microphone that they're bleeding. I'd like there to be some sort of protocol put in place for people with periods to deal with the situation because it's something that you just absolutely can't help.' 'We just default to men' In 2022, Wimbledon changed its strict all-white dress code to allow women players to wear dark undershorts because of concerns by menstruating players. Manchester City changed their women's shorts colour that same year, while female cricketers have also been asked about the rare occasions they have to don their whites for Test matches as awareness over periods and kit as well as the sport in general increased. Gilmour wants to encourage more conversations on the subject in badminton, despite only becoming so open herself since the incident. 'This is probably the first real discussion we've had of periods around badminton,' says Gilmour, 31, as she uses careful and deliberate language to talk about the issue and what occurred during her match. 'I think we need to start to be so comfortable having these conversations, even just with me doing these kind of interviews over the last few days I've become so much more blasé about saying periods or bleeding or menstrual cycle, or all that stuff because 50 per cent of the population deal with it every month and the other 50, if any of them are creeped out, I'll just tell them to grow up.' Badminton allows for a bathroom break during the two-minute intervals between games but there is no dispensation should players need longer. 'I think with so many rules, we just default to men,' Gilmour says. 'The men are mostly the ones in positions of power in governing bodies and I think we're slowly seeing that change, but it just takes an extra breadth of knowledge that women bring to life, to the world. 'More knowledge in a room is better than a whole chunk of knowledge of people's experiences missing, so the more women that we can get into leadership positions in sport... I think the more ground we can cover on these kind of rules and these situations.'
