South Korea's star badminton player An Se-young has guaranteed at least the silver medal in women's singles at the Asian Games.

The 21-year-old, who is the world's top-ranker and the reigning world champ, defeated her Chinese rival, fifth-ranked He Bingjiao, with two sets to her advantage in the first 42 minutes of the semifinals on Friday.

An is the first South Korean to advance to the women's singles final match at the Asian Games since 1996 Olympic champion Bang Soo-hyun won gold at the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games.

The winner of the Friday afternoon semifinal between China's Chen Yufei and Japan's Aya Ohori will compete for the gold medal against An on Saturday.