Taiwan’s top female badminton player, Tai Tzu-ying, is ready to put an up-and-down year behind her and focus her attention on this year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Though Tai rose to No. 3 in the Badminton World Federation’s women’s singles rankings in August last year, the highest-ranking of any Taiwanese woman, she said it could have been better, pointing to the wide gap in ranking points between her and those ranked above her.
She was also hampered by an injury to a heel suffered at the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open in November last year that led to poor results there and at the Dubai World Superseries Finals in December, tournaments she had won in 2014. The loss of ranking points at those two events sent her ranking tumbling to ninth in the world.
Photo: AFP
Tai said her injury limited her in Dubai and she subsequently decided to turn down invitations to other events on the advice of her father and concentrate on getting healthy.
She is now being treated by doctors at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taoyuan and is recovering well, but there is pressure on her to perform well ahead of the Olympic Games.
The top 34 players in the world automatically qualify for the Olympic singles competition (with no more than two from any one country), so Tai is virtually assured of competing in Rio de Janeiro.
The challenge will not be qualifying for a spot, but rather securing the highest possible ranking by the May 5, the cutoff date to get a high seed and a favorable draw.
In 2012 as the 10th seed at the London Olympics she had to face third seed and eventual gold medalist Li Xuerui in the round-of-16, exiting the tournament earlier than she had hoped.
Aside from moving back up the rankings, Tai also plans to get a better read on her potential opponents in the coming months.
“With still half a year before the Olympics, I want to learn from every event I play and come up with strategies by observing my opponents,” she said. “My basic goal is to improve on my top-16 finish at the London Olympics.”
She will face some early tests when she competes at the Yonex All England Open next month, then the Que Singapore Open and Badminton Asia Championships in April, tournaments in which she finished in the top four last year.
For now, she is hoping to get healthy so that she can build on last year and be more competitive at the top echelon of women’s badminton on the biggest stages.
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