Source:REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
[Saba Sports News] In the recently concluded 2025 BWF World Championships women’s singles final, world number 5 Yamaguchi Akane defeated world number 4 Chen Yufei 2-0 to claim the title. After the match, Yamaguchi herself was interviewed by the media. When asked how she evaluated winning her third World Championship title, Yamaguchi said: “This year, I’ve consistently found it difficult to reach finals, but especially over the past month, I’ve been thinking about how to play against opponents ranked higher than me, particularly those seeded in the top four. Although I’ve played against them many times this year, I couldn’t find my touch in many matches, so I thought about how to break the deadlock while training more consciously to improve things like shot speed, putting in more effort than usual. I don’t know if this counts as effort, but I understand that effort doesn’t always yield immediate returns, and not all effort necessarily produces results. However, this time, I felt my usual accumulation of work came into play during the match. For my future endeavors, this victory allows me to personally prove that giving my all can lead to good results and has given me more confidence. So I feel this was a very meaningful tournament. But I think there was an element of luck involved; I believe this victory wasn’t entirely due to skill alone.”