Sung Ji-hyun

Sung went into badminton following the path of her parents Sung Han-kook and Kim Yun-ja who both competed internationally in the 1980s.[4]

She won the Korea Grand Prix Gold title in 2011. Unlike most South Korean badminton players Sung has focused on singles and in December 2011 she received a career high ranking of number seven in the world in that discipline.[2]

In 2012, Sung's performance at Super Series was progressingly better, with semi final performance in Indonesia Open, Singapore Open and Japan Open. She was seeded 8th at the 2012 Olympics. However, her lackluster performance in the Olympics saw her failing to make past the group match, losing to Yip Pui Yin. She defended her title Korea Grand Prix Gold title at the end of the year.

Sung won her first Super Series Premier title early in 2013 at her hometown, the Korea Open. This propelled her ranking up to world no.5, the highest of her career. Sung reached semi final at the All England, losing to the eventual winner Tine Baun in an exciting match lasted for 76 minutes, 22–24, 21–19, 19–21. She later won the 2013 Chinese Taipei Open Grand Prix Gold against Tai Tzu-ying 21–16, 21–9. Then, she reached the finals of 2013 Denmark Super Series Premier losing to Wang Yihan in 21–16, 18–21, 20–22. In 2013 Korea Open Grand Prix Gold, she went up against compatriot Bae Youn-joo and she was beaten in 3 sets 21–19, 15–21, 21–9.

In 2014 German Open Grand Prix Gold, She went on to the finals. Sayaka Takahashi won 21–17, 8–21, 21–12. In 2014 Badminton Asia Championships, she became the first South Korean in 10 years to win the title, beating 1st seeded Wang Shixian 21–19, 21–15. In 2014 Chinese Taipei Open Grand Prix Gold, she won 21–13, 21–18 against Liu Xin. She qualified for the Dubai 2014 BWF Super Series Masters Finals and lost to Tai Tzu-ying in the final by 17–21, 12–21.

She won the 2015 German Open Grand Prix Gold beating Carolina Marin 21–15, 14–21, 21–6. In 2017, she helped the South Korean national team to win the world team championships at the 2017 Sudirman Cup.[5]

Record against year-end Finals finalists, World Championships semifinalists, and Olympic quarterfinalists. Accurate as of 12 March 2020.[8]

Players Matches Results Change Won Lost Petya Nedelcheva 3 2 1 +1 Chen Yufei 11 1 10 –9 He Bingjiao 10 5 5 0 Li Xuerui 14 1 13 –12 Wang Lin 2 1 1 0 Wang Shixian 12 5 7 –2 Wang Xin 7 3 4 –1 Wang Yihan 15 3 12 –9 Cheng Shao-chieh 2 2 0 +2 Tai Tzu-ying 28 9 19 –10 Tine Baun 7 1 6 –5 Pi Hongyan 3 1 2 –1 Juliane Schenk 7 3 4 –1

Players Matches Results Change Won Lost Yip Pui Yin 11 8 3 +5 Zhou Mi 2 1 1 0 Saina Nehwal 12 3 9 –6 P. V. Sindhu 17 8 9 –1 Lindaweni Fanetri 6 5 1 +4 Minatsu Mitani 8 7 1 +6 Nozomi Okuhara 10 4 6 –2 Akane Yamaguchi 10 5 5 0 Wong Mew Choo 1 1 0 +1 Bae Yeon-ju 7 3 4 –1 Carolina Marín 9 1 8 –7 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 12 9 3 +6 Ratchanok Intanon 22 10 12 –2

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sung Ji-hyun.

• Sung Ji-hyun at BWF.tournamentsoftware.com
• Sung Ji-hyun at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)