An Se-young sets up Korea's first women's singles badminton medal since 1996

Korea’s An Se-young beat Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 2-1 in the women’s singles badminton semifinals at the Paris Olympics Sunday, guaranteeing Korea’s first medal in the event since 1996.

Korea's An Se-young plays against Indonesia's Gregoria Mariska Tunjung during their women's singles badminton semifinal match at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Sunday in Paris. [AP/YONHAP]

Korea’s An Se-young beat Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 2-1 in the women’s singles badminton semifinals at the Paris Olympics Sunday, guaranteeing Korea’s first medal in the event since 1996.

Tunjung grabbed an early lead during the first game, with An forced to take multiple dives and failing to close the gap before the game reached its first setpoint, losing 21-11. But An came back strong in the second and third games, winning them 21-13 and 21-16 to mirror her confident quarterfinal comeback.

An will face either Carolina Marin of Spain or He Bingjiao of China in the final, where she will claim either silver or gold.

Bang Soo-hyun remains the only Korean woman to have won a medal in women’s badminton singles at the Olympics, winning silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and gold in 1996 in Atlanta.

An, the highest-ranked Korean women’s singles player at world No. 2 as of press time, is the only Korean player left in the men’s and women’s singles competitions.

She has already made it further than she did at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she was knocked out in the quarterfinals.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]