[Anchor]
World's top badminton player An Se-young secured her 47th career title, breaking the all-time record for the most wins in women's singles. Despite injuring her ankle after slipping on the court, she refused to give up and delivered a thrilling comeback victory.
Reporter Bae Jeonghun has the story.
[Reporter]
An Se-young faced a tough battle against world number three Akane Yamaguchi, whom she met again 19 days after the Nagoya Asian Games final.
Drenched in sweat, she threw her body across the court multiple times. As the court became slippery, she asked the umpire to have the sweat wiped away thoroughly. When her requests were repeatedly turned down, she tried to grab a mop herself, only to be stopped again in a frustrating sequence of events.
After dropping the first game, she claimed the second to turn the momentum around, but ultimately found herself hindered by the slippery court.
Early in the third game, she slipped during a defensive play and complained of pain in her Achilles tendon, falling behind 11 to 5.
On the verge of seeing her winning streak end, the resilience of the world number one came alive.
She began her chase by inducing unforced errors from her opponent and wore Yamaguchi down with a grueling endurance battle featuring long rallies, eventually leveling the score.
[It's truly astonishing. An Se-young wins 7 out of 8 points to tie the game.]
[This is the longest rally of the match. The shuttlecock went back and forth 38 times.]
Continuing to pressure a visibly fatigued Yamaguchi, An Se-young clinched the third game 21 to 18 and celebrated her miraculous comeback win with her signature roar.
Achieving her second consecutive Denmark Open title, An Se-young extended her recent winning streak to 45 matches, recording a phenomenal win rate of 98.4 percent with 61 wins and 1 loss this season.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) highlighted that at the young age of 24, An Se-young claimed her 47th career title, surpassing Indonesia's legendary Susi Susanti to set a new record for the most titles in women's singles history.
[An Se-young / National Badminton Team: I want to make a lot of history and records, but I am just focusing on each and every match. That is my driving force, and the enthusiastic cheers from the crowd give me great strength.]
With her ninth title of this season, An Se-young is now just two wins away from matching the record of 11 wins she set last year for the most single-season victories in women's singles.
The variable is whether she can recover from her injury.
An Se-young has arrived in Paris, where the French Open will take place this week, and is reportedly planning to make a final decision on whether to play in the first round after monitoring her condition a bit longer.
(Video by Park Gi-deok | Graphics by Park Tae-young, Lee Ga-jin)
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