4 min readMay 30, 2025 08:24 PM IST
First published on: May 30, 2025 at 11:18 AM IST
Since her Paris 2024 heartbreak, Tokyo Olympics champion Chen Yufei took a break from the sport, went to Australia to learn English, returned to the tour earlier this year, and won the Asian Championships title. Already a pretty darn good comeback, Yufei didn’t lose perspective after she won the continental title in Ningbo. She knew An Seyoung wasn’t part of the tournament and conceded that she remains the benchmark to beat in world badminton today.
On Friday at the Singapore Open, Yufei completed that incredible challenge: she ended An Seyoung’s sensational start to 2025, bringing a close to the 27-match winning streak that the Korean world No 1 and Paris Olympics champion had been on. And that too, in straight-games, winning 21-13, 21-16 in 50 minutes. That it took 10 minutes short of an hour for that scoreline is a measure of how difficult it is to beat Seyoung even on her bad days but Yufei prevailed to end Seyoung’s quest for perfection in 2025.
In the end, it was relatively smooth sailing for Yufei, who continues to raise the bar steadily on her comeback trail. Her celebrations told a story too, after a few fist pumps, an embrace with Seyoung, as she posed for cameras, she put her index finger on her lips. If there were any doubters at all about the level she is capable of getting back up to, she is certainly silencing them.
“Since the Olympics, people kept asking when Chinese players would beat An again,” Yufei told BWF after the win. “There were many doubts from the outside but now that I’ve recovered, I feel I can compete with her. One match doesn’t mean I’m back to my peak. But today, I was fully prepared and my execution was better. An is still one of the strongest players. Every battle with her is a chance to learn and challenge.”
Having gone through a lot of injury troubles, and off-court drama, Seyoung has been more cautious in picking tournaments in 2025 but was smashing through the field in every event that she did play. In the 27-match win streak, she had only even dropped three games in the process. But that would go up to five against Yufei at the Singapore Open Super 750 quarterfinals.
“The prospect of staying unbeaten definitely motivates me. All I can do is to train more, work harder and prepare more. My mindset is always to try my best to be perfect,” Seyoung had told Straits Times earlier this week. “I will ask my coaches and staff how to relieve the stress… They may tell me simple things like move faster, or don’t give the lead to the opponent. These simple instructions help to clear my mind on the court.”
But on Friday nothing seemed to work at the levels we are used to seeing from the Korean superstar. At India Open where she eased to the title, Seyoung had told reporters how she yearns for perfection on court. A trait that makes her show frustration after making an avoidable error even when she is comfortably winning a match. In this instance though, the errors couldn’t stemmed at all, even though the regular flashes of brilliance were still there, like this point.
“I couldn’t play my game or increase my pace,” Seyoung told BWF. “The drift affects everyone, it’s just a matter of who has the better control and focus on the day. Yes, I lost a match but this isn’t the end of the season. I need to improve and continue working for upcoming tournaments.”
Singapore Open: Yufei brought An Seyoung's 27-match winning streak to a close. (BWF / BadmintonPhoto) 
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