[Saba Sports News] Recently, An Se-young, hailed as the queen of women’s singles badminton, has hit another milestone in her career. Her cumulative reign as the world No.1 has officially surpassed 150 weeks, marking a brand-new record in South Korean badminton history. The 24-year-old still firmly holds the top spot in women’s singles in the latest set of five discipline world rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). With this, An Se-young has accomplished the remarkable feat of topping the women’s singles rankings for a total of 150 weeks throughout her career. The BWF updates its global rankings every Tuesday. On August 1, 2023, at the age of 21, An Se-young overtook Akane Yamaguchi to claim the world No.1 ranking for the first time. She became the first South Korean women’s singles player to reach the summit in three decades, following Bang Soo-hyun, the gold medalist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and the achievement drew widespread attention across the sports world at the time. Her dominance has proven far from fleeting. The only brief period when she surrendered the top ranking came in October 2024, when she took a break from competition to recuperate. Chen Yu Fei, then ranked world No.4, occupied first place for two consecutive weeks. Apart from that short spell, An Se-young has never relinquished the women’s singles world No.1 position.
In my view, from October 22, 2024 to the release of the latest rankings, An Se-young has remained firmly at world No.1 for 88 consecutive weeks, building an insurmountable barrier in women’s badminton.