Superstar An Se Young on Oct. 18 plays Japan's Akane Yamaguchi in the women's badminton singles final of the Denmark Open in Odense, Denmark. (Yonhap News)

By Lee Ji yae

Women's badminton supernova An Se Young has won her ninth tournament of this season.

The world No. 1 on Oct. 18 defeated Japan's Akane Yamaguchi in three sets (21-23, 21-14, 21-18) to win her second straight singles title in the Badminton World Federation's Denmark Open in Odense, Denmark.

An narrowly dropped the first set but after trailing 13-11 in the second, she scored seven consecutive points to win 21-14 and even the match.

In the deciding third game, An reported discomfort in her right foot and briefly left the court to get it checked. Despite trailing 12-9, she took a 16-12 lead after scoring seven straight points and staved off Yamaguchi's rally for the victory.

An's successful defense of her Denmark Open title followed her gold medal on Sept. 29 at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan, where she became the first to win back-to-back women's singles badminton titles at the tournament. This year, her record is 61-1 for a winning percentage of 98.4%.

After tying the record for most singles titles in one season by a male or female player with 11 last year, An has nine this year and could break her own mark.

Up next is the French Open in Paris from Oct. 20.

ljyhwa@korea.kr