An Se-young claims 9th title of 2026 season

Reigning world badminton champion An Se-young won the Denmark Open for her ninth international title of the season.

An, world No. 1, defeated third-ranked Akane Yamaguchi 2-1 (21-23, 21-14, 21-18) for her second consecutive Denmark Open title at SJF Bank Arena in Odense, Denmark, on Sunday.

An extended her winning streak against Yamaguchi to 10, while pushing her record to 61-1 in 62 matches this year.

In addition to her six victories on the Badminton World Federation World Tour, the Asian Championships gold medal in April and the world title in August, An also won the Asian Games gold medal last month over Yamaguchi, becoming the first player to win back-to-back women's singles gold medals.

An's only loss of the year came in the final of the All England Open in March.

Against Yamaguchi on Sunday, An trailed 6-4 in the opening game before scoring the next six points. But the Japanese veteran fought back to make it an 18-18 tie, and ended up taking the game 23-21 on An's unforced error for the final point.

Yamaguchi led 13-11 in the second game but An battled back with seven straight points. An conceded just one more point the rest of the game to take it 21-14.

An found herself down 11-5 in the third game, after getting her right foot checked for apparent discomfort. But An still had plenty left in her tank, turning that deficit into a 16-12 lead in a hurry.

Yamaguchi clawed her way back into the match but An proved too much to handle.

Yonhap