Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee wrapped up the year on a high, defending their title at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2025.

The Koreans, who otherwise had a somewhat inconsistent year, prevailed in an epic first game of marathon rallies against Yuki Fukushima/Mayu Matsumoto – with one even going to 156 shots. Having slipped narrowly in the first, the Japanese stayed level for a while in the second before the consistent pressure from the Koreans wore them down, and they fell apart after the midgame interval, 21-17 21-11.

For the Koreans, this was their season’s second title from their third final.

“We made the final of the World Tour Finals three years in a row and we won the title for the second successive time, so maybe there’s a special chemistry with this city of Hangzhou, and it’s a city of luck,” said Baek.

“Yesterday we played a long match, so we recovered by eating well, resting well and we had to endure a tough match. “

Lee So Hee talked about the importance of going through tough times before finding success.

“In the first game we played many long rallies, we just managed to win it. To summarise this year, it was a year of tough wins. We found success by going through tough wins.”

The beaten Japanese conceded that the superior fitness of the Koreans had made the difference.

“The Koreans were stronger physically, and that affected our placement of shuttles on court,” said Fukushima.

“There were some takeaways for us from this tournament. In particular, we beat Pearly and Thinaah after losing to them five successive times.”

→Results (Finals)