[Anchor]

World badminton powerhouse An Se-young has claimed her 47th career title. At 24 years old, she rewrote the history books for the most singles titles ever in women's singles. Despite slipping on the court and injuring her ankle, An refused to give up and pulled off a thrilling comeback.

Bae Jeonghun reports.

[Reporter]

An Se-young faced a grueling battle against world number 3 Akane Yamaguchi, whom she met again 19 days after the final of the Nagoya Asian Games.

Sweating profusely and throwing her body to the floor multiple times, the court became slippery. When she asked the umpire to have the sweat wiped properly and was repeatedly refused, a frustrating situation unfolded as she tried to grab a mop herself, only to be stopped again.

After dropping the first game and taking the second to seemingly turn the momentum around, she was ultimately tripped up by the slippery court.

Early in the third game, she slipped during a defensive play and complained of Achilles tendon pain, eventually falling behind 5–11.

With her winning streak on the brink of ending, the resilience of the world number one kicked in.

She began her chase by inducing unforced errors from her opponent and dragged her into an exhausting battle of endurance with long rallies, ultimately drawing even.

[It is truly remarkable. An Se-young claims 7 points out of 8 to level the score.]

[This is the longest rally of the match. The shuttlecock went back and forth 38 times.]

Continuing to pressure a tiring Yamaguchi, An closed out the third game 21–18 and celebrated her miraculous comeback with her trademark roar.

Achieving her second consecutive Danish Open title, An recorded her 45th straight win and an astounding win rate of 98.4% this season with 61 wins and 1 loss.

The Badminton World Federation announced that at the young age of 24, An captured her 47th career title, surpassing Indonesian legend Susi Susanti to set a new record for the most career titles in women's singles.

[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 many spectators also give me strength.]

With her 9th title of the season, An is now just 2 wins away from matching her own record of 11 wins for the most single-season women's singles victories set last year.

The variable is whether she can recover from her injury.

An just arrived a moment ago in Paris, where this week's French Open will take place, and is reportedly planning to monitor her condition a bit longer before making a final decision on whether to play in the first round the day after tomorrow.

(Video Editing: Park Gi-deok, Design: Park Tae-young, Lee Ga-jin)