China Open: History maker Se Young seeking cloud nine in Changzhou

With eight titles to her name and counting this year, An Se-young is currently the most dominant shuttler on the planet and she will take some stopping at the upcoming China Open that begins on Tuesday.

Still only 21, the South Korean developed into a fine shuttler way beyond her tender age and almost an unstoppable force in the women’s singles.

An is currently almost 10,000 points clear from Akane Yamaguchi at the top of the world rankings, cemented thanks to an almost flawless performance in every tournament she participated in this year.

Of the 11 individual events she was involved in, the Gwangju-born shuttler won eight and finished runner-up twice, whilst her most subdued performance came at the Indonesia Open where she exited in the semi-finals.

Most recently, An effortlessly swept past Carolina Marin in the World Championships final to create history as the first South Korean women’s singles world champion.

“I’m young, but this victory is a result of all my hard work over the years. It’s so amazing. I won this for Korea for the first time, so I’m proud of this.

“While training I was visualising all this, and because I dreamed it, it came true. If we don’t dream it, it won’t come true. My next target is the Asian Games and Olympic gold medal,” An told the Badminton World Federation.

Her continued success also means An is the highest earner on the World Tour this season, grossing $428,480 (RM1.99 million), leaving her well ahead of Denmark men’s singles ace Viktor Axelsen on the money front.

An will have a chance to rack up more victories and income at the final Super 1000 event of the year taking place in Changzhou.

She has Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt for company in the first round, an opponent she is heavily expected to beat for the fourth consecutive time.

She is expected to reach another final where she could face Japan's Akane Yamaguchi.

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