Taiwanese badminton world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying overcame a major hurdle when she defeated China’s Sun Yu in straight sets at the Dubai World Superseries Finals yesterday.
Tai won 21-19, 21-19 in the semi-finals of the Badminton World Federation event.
Tai consolidated her world No. 1 ranking in women’s singles and took her game to a higher level with her first victory against Sun, who is China’s top player.
Photo provided by BadmintonPhoto.com
It was sweet revenge for Tai, who has lost four times to Sun in past competitions, while points she accumulated for the win will ensure the Kaohsiung native retains her No. 1 status through to the end of the year.
Tai advanced to today’s championship final, where she faces the winner of the other semi-final match between Sung Ji-hyun of South Korea and P.V. Sindhu of India.
That match was to begin shortly after press time last night.
If Tai wins the championship final, she is to receive US$75,000 in prize money.
At the Hamdan Sports Complex last night, Tai won the first set, despite not putting together a string of points greater than three. However, the first set had only one game point.
In the second set Tai needed two game points, but put together a string of five consecutive points.
It took Tai 50 minutes to get past her tenacious Chinese opponent, with Sun’s 1.83m frame giving her a 20cm height advantage. Sun matched Tai point for point throughout a hard-fought battle.
Tai on Thursday breezed through her Group A match to reach the semi-finals, beating Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in straight sets, 21-12, 21-14, in 32 minutes.
Tai cruised through the first set with relative ease, controlling the tempo of the game throughout.
Despite rallying in the second, Ratchanok was unable to break Tai’s rhythm and she eventually pulled away in the second half of the set.
The Superseries Finals concludes today in the United Arab Emirates, where the world’s top badminton players are competing for total prize money of US$1 million.
Tai won the singles title at the Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships last month, defeating Sindhu in two sets in the final.
She became the federation’s official world No. 1 female player this month.
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