Yamaguchi embraces challenge after falling to An Se-young in Asian Games final

Yamaguchi Akane showed true sportsmanship after being held to a silver medal by the formidable An Se-young of Samsung Life in the women's singles badminton final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters in the mixed zone after the final, Yamaguchi said she had gone into the match with a challenger's mindset. "An Se-young is such a strong player — it wasn't quite a 'nothing to lose' attitude, but I approached it thinking, 'I'm going to challenge her,'" she said. "Rather than wanting to avoid her because she's too strong, I actually feel glad there's a player out there worth challenging."

Yamaguchi has now lost nine consecutive matches against An, though she showed her resilience in the women's team semifinal held before the individual events, managing to take a game off the South Korean ace.

For An, who had swept the World Championships and the China Masters with near-flawless performances, it was a rare game conceded after a long stretch of dominance.

Yamaguchi said she had drawn on two sources of experience heading into the final. "I combined what I learned from facing An Se-young at the All England Open with the strategy I used when I beat world No. 2 Wang Zhiyi of China on Monday," she said. "There were good moments, but ultimately I fell apart."

She added that An's defense had repeatedly broken up her attacking rhythm. "I couldn't sustain the pressure with consecutive attacks because her defense kept cutting off the flow, and I had to restart rallies from scratch," Yamaguchi said. "No matter how good your condition is, you can't always completely dismantle your opponent — so I need to work on having one or two reliable scoring options I can pull out in those moments, or ways to steer the rally in a direction she finds uncomfortable."

Yamaguchi also noted some positives from her performance. "My attacks connected well for points in this match, and I held my ground without giving up easy points even in long rallies and defensive situations," she said. "I think that if I can keep the rallies going, I can draw errors from An Se-young as well."

She vowed to stay composed rather than force the pace. "If I push the tempo too hard, I end up making my own mistakes, so I want to maintain a stable pace and sharpen my balance between attack and defense," she said.

Standing at 156 centimeters, the "little giant" Yamaguchi is a genuine world-class player — a three-time world champion who held the world No. 1 ranking for 74 weeks.

At 28, she remains firmly ranked third in the world and is widely regarded as one of the few players capable of threatening An Se-young.