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At the 2025 Australian Open, An Se Young secured her tenth title of the year, making Korean badminton history. She did this while beating everyone she played in two sets and even beating the world number eight, Ratchanok Intanon from Thailand, in both sets under ten. With the World Tour Finals coming up in a few days, An Se Young may truly be tested against players like Akane Yamaguchi and Chen Yu Fei.
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
At the recent 2025 Australia Open, Anie
0:03
Young just secured her 10th title of
0:05
this year. But what's so important about
0:07
this tournament is not that she won the
0:09
title or the fact that it's her 10th
0:11
title of the year. It's the fashion in
0:14
which she won.
0:18
Who knows?
0:22
Just
0:23
[Applause]
0:26
retains the title.
0:29
History is made. Done. It the first
0:33
winning singles player to win the French
0:35
Open title.
0:37
With score lines like these, it makes
0:39
you wonder what makes her so good and
0:41
how can one even beat her. In this
0:44
video, we will explain exactly that. But
0:48
in order to properly break down how to
0:50
effectively beat her, we need to start
0:52
with what makes her so good.
0:57
If you guys have watched Anie Young play
0:59
before, you might have noticed that she
1:01
plays a rather unorthodox women's
1:03
singles. In fact, her style of play is
1:05
very similar to men's singles.
1:08
Being one of the fastest women's singles
1:10
players on the circuit right now, Ani
1:12
Young aims to play a faster flatter
1:14
style with the goal of pushing the pace
1:16
of the rallies.
1:18
You can see this right off the bat with
1:20
her serve.
1:22
[Music]
1:28
Well, bigger lead than she's had in a
1:30
while.
1:32
Compared to a traditional women's single
1:34
serve, Anie Young chooses to use the
1:37
backhand short serve.
1:39
On top of this, she also pushes her
1:42
serve deeper into the court, which will
1:45
often force her opponent to reply back
1:47
with a faster shot.
1:49
During the rally, an seyou young will
1:51
also play further into the court to
1:53
prevent her opponents from playing the
1:55
net and to keep them stuck in the back
1:57
court.
1:58
By playing faster shots that travel
2:00
farther into the court, Ani Young limits
2:02
the angles of return her opponents can
2:04
play.
2:06
This allows her to move smoothly on
2:07
court and essentially anticipate certain
2:10
shots that her opponents might play.
2:21
And during her game against Wardini,
2:23
she capitalized a lot by pushing Wardini
2:26
into her late corners and keeping her
2:28
stuck there. And whenever Ordini wanted
2:30
to slow the pace of the game down, An
2:32
Sei Young would be ready to capitalize
2:34
on her clear and change the pace.
2:38
Also notice how Anu Young doesn't try to
2:40
force a full powered smash, but instead
2:43
she plays more for accuracy, angle, and
2:46
her followup.
2:50
So Anie Young will choose to play the
2:51
higher percentage shot being the half
2:54
smash and look for her next opportunity
2:56
at the net.
2:58
That's out.
3:02
[Music]
3:06
By focusing on the placement and her
3:09
follow-up, Anie Young can force her
3:11
opponent to play a faster game and
3:13
follow her rhythm.
3:15
And that's essentially what happened
3:17
during this game against Wardi.
3:20
Any young would play a faster rhythm and
3:22
faster shots like drives, flat pushes,
3:24
and clears to limit Wardeni shots like
3:26
her fast drops and push her out of her
3:28
comfortable rhythm, thus ultimately
3:30
making Wardi make more unforced errors.
3:34
In fact, in the first game alone, Anc
3:37
Young's 21 points were made up of eight
3:40
of Wardi's unforced errors.
3:44
And that alone says a lot about how Anie
3:47
Young's shot speed and overall pace of
3:49
the game was tough for Wardy to deal
3:51
with.
3:53
And this is the same with her game
3:55
against Ratchin where Ratchinox's game
3:57
was riddled with mistakes.
3:59
I wonder if she has that.
4:02
And this is how Enay Young can produce
4:03
such absurd score lines. By focusing on
4:06
her shot, she can force her opponents
4:09
into a faster rhythm, making them play
4:11
more unforced errors while minimizing
4:13
her own errors.
4:16
Ansu Young's shot speed and her shot
4:18
selection also helps her anticipate what
4:20
shots her opponent will play next,
4:22
allowing her to change pace on the next
4:24
shot and retrieve better as well.
4:35
[Applause]
4:40
However, this isn't to say that a faster
4:42
men's single style is superior to a
4:44
women's single style. Otherwise, all the
4:46
other women's singles players would
4:47
adopt it, too.
4:49
The reason Anu Young can make this style
4:51
work is due to many factors.
4:56
The first factor to talk about are her
4:57
strong limbs.
4:59
This lays the foundation for pretty much
5:01
everything else that she can pull off in
5:02
her game.
5:04
Having strong legs allows Ani Young to
5:06
push the pace of the game and also makes
5:08
up the other half of her retrieving
5:10
ability.
5:12
With this, she can make her opponent
5:14
feel the need to rush their shots while
5:16
simultaneously capitalizing on these
5:18
shots.
5:21
For example, a shot that is difficult to
5:24
deal with is the flat push to the
5:26
backhand side.
5:28
In many rallies, Ani Young would choose
5:30
to push this corner in hopes of getting
5:32
her opponent to perform many body turns.
5:35
But if her opponent plays this shot back
5:38
to her, Ani Young is able to jump out
5:40
and attack the shot rather than turning
5:42
her body and taking an awkward around
5:43
the head.
5:47
The second factor is her shot quality.
5:50
And Su Young's style relies
5:51
significantly on her shot quality to be
5:53
near perfect. the moment her shot is a
5:56
little bit loose or not as fast, her
6:00
opponent can capitalize.
6:03
Number one, that you know, you have to
6:05
play your best shots to be able to win a
6:07
point.
6:08
So, all of these points of the Korean
6:11
game complement and build on each other
6:13
so well that it makes her almost
6:15
unbeatable.
6:17
That brings up the question, how does
6:19
one beat on Young?
6:21
To answer this, we need to take a look
6:24
at how players played when she lost. We
6:27
can first take a look at how Yamaguchi
6:28
played against Anza Young in the 2025
6:31
Korea Open.
6:34
A strategy that worked well for
6:35
Yamaguchi was to attack the net, taking
6:38
it early and playing a deceptive shot
6:41
that still keeps the pace of the game
6:42
high.
6:44
These deceptions were not necessarily
6:46
the same as the fast to slow pace
6:48
changes like the ones we saw Ginting do
6:50
against Mimo, but rather ones that focus
6:53
more on changing direction and getting
6:55
Ani Young to move the wrong way first.
6:59
By doing this, Yamaguchi breaks Ani
7:03
Young's rhythm, which is crucial to
7:05
scoring points on her.
7:10
Great play from Yamaguchi. She's in
7:12
control of this point. Other players
7:14
that Ani Young has struggled with are
7:15
Chen Yu Fay and Tai Su Ying. While these
7:18
players don't have the speed like
7:20
Yamaguchi to take every shot so early,
7:23
they have the suddenness and accuracy in
7:24
their backcourt shots that can
7:26
completely dismantle Ani Young's
7:28
defense.
7:30
A crucial part of both these women's
7:32
games that made it difficult for Ani
7:33
Young to play is their ability to
7:35
generate power at the last second of
7:37
contact with the shuttle.
7:40
By doing this, Titsuying and Chenyu were
7:43
able to add much more deception and
7:46
unexpectedness in their shots, which is
7:48
essential to beating an opponent that is
7:51
very stable on court like Ani Young. But
7:53
what all of these players did well
7:55
against Ani Young was that they all sped
7:57
up their shot speed.
8:00
In a sense, it's kind of like pitting
8:01
Ani Young's play style against herself.
8:04
The reason why you must speed up your
8:06
shot speed is to make it more difficult
8:07
for Ani Young to control her shots
8:10
because Ani Young's play style and
8:12
exceptional rhythm on court rely heavily
8:14
on her shot quality. So, if these
8:16
players can somehow speed up their shot
8:18
speed and force the world number one to
8:20
reduce her shot quality, then they have
8:23
a much better shot at winning.
8:26
So, even though the world number one
8:28
women's singles player seems absolutely
8:29
unbeatable the past season due to a
8:32
range of many factors that aid her game
8:34
exceptionally well, she isn't
8:36
unbeatable.
8:38
Players like Yamaguchi and Chenu Fay
8:40
have been able to beat Ani Young in the
8:42
past year and have done so by either
8:44
playing extremely fast or by having more
8:47
suddenness in their swing, becoming more
8:49
deceptive to break Aniong's rhythm.
8:53
So, who do you guys think has the best
8:54
shot of beating Ani Young in the World
8:56
Tour Finals? Let us know in the comments
8:58
below.
9:00
If you guys like this video, make sure
9:02
to hit the like and subscribe button so
9:04
you don't miss out on new content.
9:07
And as always, thanks for watching.
9:10
Young becomes the first woman
9:17
[Music]