World No. 1 An Se-young advanced to the quarterfinals of the ongoing Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour event at home Thursday.
The top-seeded An knocked off Chiu Pin-Chian of Chinese Taipei 2-0 (21-13, 21-8) in the round of 16 of the Korea Open at Suwon Gymnasium in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul.
An went up 12-6 before allowing Chiu to cut it to 13-11. From there, An claimed seven straight points to regain control of the match.
The South Korean star then won the first seven points of the second game en route to an easy victory.
In the quarterfinals, An will take on Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan.
An is going for her eighth BWF World Tour victory of this season and her third career Korea Open title, following her back-to-back wins in 2022 and 2023.
An is regarded as the favorite this week, in the absence of other high-ranked players, including a trio of Chinese players in Wang Zhiyi (No. 2), Han Yue (No. 3) and Chen Yufei (No. 5).
Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, world No. 4, is the second seed in Suwon and is on the opposite side of the bracket from An.
An and Yamaguchi have split their 28 head-to-head matches so far, with An having won all three meetings this year.
In the men's doubles Thursday, the world No. 1 tandem of Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho defeated Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita of Japan 2-0 (22-20, 21-15) in the round of 16.
The South Koreans trailed in the early part of the opening game before grabbing a 16-14 lead. Then they blew a 19-17 lead before winning the final two points.
The teams were knotted at 13-13 in the second game and then the South Koreans finished off the match on an 8-2 run.
Seo and Kim will next play Ren Xiangyu and Xie Haonan of China in the quarterfinals.
Seo and Kim have combined for seven international titles this year, including their first world championship together in August.
In the women's doubles, the second-seeded duo of Kong Hee-yong and Kim Hye-jeong beat Hu Ling-Fang and Jheng Yu-Chieh of Chinese Taipei 2-0 (21-17, 21-13).
Kong and Kim will face Rui Hirokami and Sayaka Hobara of Japan in the quarterfinals.
Baek Hana and Lee So-hee, No. 3 seed from South Korea, eliminated Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia in the round of 16 with a 2-0 (21-12, 21-16) victory.
Their opponents in the quarterfinals will be Hsieh Pei-Shan and Hung En-Tzu of Chinese Taipei. (Yonhap)
