South Korea's Baek Hana and Lee So-hee Capture Women's Doubles Badminton World Title
Key Takeaways
- •Baek Hana and Lee So-hee defeated China's Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning 21-15, 21-15 to win the women's doubles title at the BWF World Championships in New Delhi on Sunday.
- •The title is South Korea's first in women's doubles at the world championships since Gil Young-ah and Jang Hye-ock won in 1995, making Baek and Lee only the second South Korean duo to claim it.
- •Baek and Lee controlled the 51-minute final from the start, scoring the first five points and never trailing, and closed out the match with a five-point run after China cut the deficit to 13-12 in the second game.
- •The victory ends a Chinese stronghold in women's doubles, a discipline in which Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan had swept three straight world titles from 2021 to 2023.
- •South Korea's defending men's doubles champions Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho lost their semifinal 21-17, 21-18 to Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, the 2022 world champions.
Baek Hana and Lee So-hee of South Korea pose after their win over China's Tan Ning and Liu Sheng Shu in the women's doubles final of the Badminton World Championships in New Delhi, India, Sunday. (AP-Yonhap)
Baek Hana and Lee So-hee teamed up to win the women's doubles badminton world title in India on Sunday, delivering South Korea's first triumph in the event in more than three decades.
The South Korean pair defeated Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning of China 21-15, 21-15 in the women's doubles final at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships, held at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. The world championships, now staged annually outside of Olympic years, offer the most prestigious individual titles in the sport beyond the Olympic Games, and women's doubles has long been China's strongest discipline — Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan swept three straight world titles from 2021 to 2023, extending a line of Chinese champions that stretches back decades.
With the victory, Baek and Lee became just the second South Korean duo to claim the world title in the women's doubles — and the first to do so since Gil Young-ah and Jang Hye-ock in 1995, an era when the tournament was still held every two years.
Baek and Lee seized control of the final from the start, scoring the match's first five points and never trailing while taking the opening game over Liu and Tan. In the second game, the teams were tied at 4-4 before Baek and Lee opened up a 10-5 lead. The Chinese duo cut the deficit to 13-12, only to see Baek and Lee respond with five unanswered points to clinch the title in 51 minutes.
Elsewhere at the championships, the news was less favorable for South Korea in the men's doubles. Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho failed to defend their title after losing their semifinal to Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia — the 2022 world champions — 21-17, 21-18.
Later Sunday, world No. 1 An Se-young, also the reigning Olympic champion, was set to take on second-ranked Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the women's singles final, renewing one of the sport's most familiar rivalries. An won her first world title in 2023, while Yamaguchi was crowned champion in 2021, 2022 and 2025.
