Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying won her group yesterday in the women’s singles badminton competition to advance to the 16-player elimination round, where she immediately faces a daunting challenge.
The 18-year-old, currently ranked 13th in the world and seeded 10th in London, won her three-player group as expected by defeating Victoria Montero of Mexico 21-6, 21-10.
Tai had previously defeated Anu Nieminen of Finland, also in straight games, to finish atop her group with a 2-0 record and book a spot in the knockout stage.
Photo: Reuters
In her next match, she faces third seed Li Xuerui, one of the three Chinese players expected to sweep the medals in the event.
Li may be the hottest of the three. She has won four of the past five singles events she has played in, the only blemish coming at the Indonesia Open in mid-June when she lost to Saina Nehwal of India in the final.
Tai has a puncher’s chance, having played well in spurts against the 21-year-old Chinese in two recent matches.
She lost 9-21, 21-16, 21-10 to Li at the All England Open on March 1 and 21-8, 21-19 at the French Open in October last year.
Taiwan’s other competitor in the women’s singles, Cheng Shao-chieh, also won in her group to advance to the elimination round.
Cheng, seeded seventh, won her three-player group by defeating Neslihan Yigit of Turkey 21-10, 21-6 yesterday.
Cheng had previously beaten Simone Prutsch of Austria, also in straight games.
In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s “golden duo” of Chien Yu-chin and Cheng Wen-hsing came agonizingly close to clinching a place in the quarter-finals Monday, only to fall to the verge of elimination, but then pull qualification back from the brink yesterday.
Chien and Cheng lost to Jwala Gutt and Ashwini Ponnappa of India, 25-23, 16-21, 21-18 in the second of their three group matches and needed a convincing win over the top pairing in the group — Reika Kakiiwa and Mizuki Fujii of Japan — to have any chance of advancing.
The Taiwanese duo duly obliged by beating the Japanese pairing 21-19, 21-11 yesterday.
Against the Indian duo on Monday, Chien and Cheng took a late lead in the first game, only to squander three game points, a pivotal moment in the match.
“All I can say is that when we reached 22, it’s really too bad that I missed my serve,” a frustrated Cheng said, admitting that they played too passively when they were ahead.
After rebounding to win the second game, the Taiwanese pulled to within 19-18 in the final game and Cheng had a clear shot close to the net to even the score. Instead, she mishit the shuttlecock, sending it into the net.
The match ended a point later.
“The shuttlecock was very close to the net and I was afraid my racket would hit it, so I pulled the racket back too quickly,” Cheng said.
Head coach Liao Kuo-mao said it was a match Chien and Cheng should have won, but did not, leaving him very disappointed.
“We made too many unforced errors,” he said. “If we had taken the first set, we would probably be the ones who are happy now.”
Chien and Cheng were ranked world No. 1 in women’s doubles as recently as April last year, but a run of bad form sent their ranking tumbling to 11th and they were not seen as medal favorites.
In the men’s singles, Hsu Jen-hao was beaten 21-14, 21-10 by Son Wan-ho of South Korea yesterday and eliminated from the competition.
Taiwanese athletes in action
Tuesday, July 31
Archery
Men’s individual
Kuo Cheng-wei defeated Ahmed El-Nemr of Egypt 6-2 in the round-of-16.
Women’s individual
Tan Ya-ting defeated Elena Richter of Germany 6-2 in the round-of-16.
Carina Christiansen of Denmark defeated Le Chien-ying 6-4 in the round-of-16.
Badminton
Men’s singles Group H
Son Wan-ho of South Korea defeated Hsu Jen-hao 21-14, 21-10.
Women’s singles Group K
Tai Tzu-ying defeated Victoria Montero of Mexico 21-6, 21-10.
Women’s singles Group C
Cheng Shao-chieh defeated Neslihan Yigit of Turkey 21-10, 21-6.
Women’s doubles Group B
Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa of India defeated Cheng Wen-hsing and Chien Yu-chin 25-23, 16-21, 21-18.
Cheng Wen-hsing and Chien Yu-chin defeated Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa of Japan 21-19, 21-11.
Rowing
Men’s singles sculls
Wang Ming-hui finished 1st in semi-final F and he progresses to final E.
Sailing
Men’s RS-X
Chang Hao finished 36th of 38 in race 1 and 36th of 38 in race 2.
Swimming
Women’s 200m butterfly heats
Cheng Wan-jung finished 28th out of 28 and was eliminated.
Table Tennis
Men’s singles
Chuang Chih-yuan defeated Andrej Gacina of Croatia 4-2 in the fourth round.
Weightlifting
Women’s under-58kg
Kuo Hsing-chun finished eighth after lifting 99kg in the snatch and 129kg in the clean and jerk.
FRUSTRATION: Alcaraz made several unforced errors over four sets against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, who had never made it past the third round in a major competition Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz reached the fourth round of the French Open after laboring past Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the Friday night session. The second-seeded Spaniard had never before played Dzumhur, a 33-year-old Bosnian who had never been past the third round at any major tournament. “I suffered quite a lot today,” Alcaraz said. “The first two sets was under control, then he started to play more deeply and more aggressively. It was really difficult for me.” Dzumhur hurt his left knee in a fall in the second round, and had treatment on Friday on his right leg during the
‘DREAM’: The 5-0 victory was PSG’s first Champions League title, and the biggest final win by any team in the 70-year history of the top-flight European competition Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever with teenager Desire Doue scoring twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory. Doue supplied the pass for Achraf Hakimi to give PSG an early lead and the 19-year-old went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled the advantage in the 20th minute. Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu, another teenager, made it five. Inter were
The horn sounded on Wednesday night to signal a third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final, as the Florida Panthers celebrated merely by hopping over the boards and several heading over to congratulate goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. It was a subdued celebration seemingly more befitting a regular-season win for the reigning Cup champs. “I remember a few years ago, it felt like such an accomplishment from where we were at one point,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said, adding: “It’s all business and we’ve got a bigger goal in mind.” The Panthers closed out the Carolina Hurricanes in five games, with a 5-3 victory in
The Edmonton Oilers on Thursday defeated the Dallas Stars 6-3 to book their place in the Stanley Cup Finals, setting up a repeat of last year’s NHL showpiece against reigning champions the Florida Panthers. The Oilers, bidding to become the first Canadian team to win the NHL’s championship series since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens, head to Florida for Game 1 of the best-of-seven series set for Wednesday. Florida, who are to play in the NHL showpiece for the third straight season, won last year’s title 4-3 to extend Canada’s decades-long Stanley Cup drought. Connor McDavid led Edmonton back to the championship series on
RSS