Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday beat Soniia Cheah of Malaysia 21-16, 21-19 in their women’s singles semi-final at the Yonex Chinese Taipei Open to remain in contention for a third title in Taipei.
Although the world No. 1 made several mistakes, she overcame seventh seed Cheah in only 37 minutes.
Tai after her victory said that she felt she was doing OK, but “needed encouragement from the crowd” when things did not go well.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung
Tai is to face world No. 3 Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark in today’s final.
In the mixed doubles, Taiwan’s Yang Po-hsuan and Wu Ti-jung came back against Malaysian duo Chen Tang-jie and Peck Yen-wei 12-21, 21-18, 21-12 to give themselves a chance at becoming the first Taiwanese pair to win the title at the tournament.
Yang praised his opponents for playing well and being hard to defend, and said he tried to keep calm after dropping the first game.
“We lost the first game, but we did not worry about it. [We] just relaxed and kept playing,” he said.
Yang and Wu are to face Alfian Eko Prasetya and Marsheilla Gischa Islami from Indonesia in today’s final.
In the men’s singles, Taiwan’s world No. 4 Chou Tien-chen was upset by world No. 60 Lee Zii-jia of Malaysia 21-17, 14-21, 22-24 in their semi-final, costing him the chance to vie for his third consecutive Taipei Open title.
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