Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying failed to reach the final of the women’s singles at the Yonex Internationaux de France de Badminton in Paris on Saturday, losing to Spain’s Carolina Marin, who began the final against An Se-young of South Korea just before press time last night.
Tai was defeated 16-21, 9-21 in 35 minutes in their semi-final.
The loss means that Tai would fall to second place in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings this week, losing her world No. 1 title to Okuhara Nozomi of Japan.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In the first game, the 25-year-old Taiwanese took a 5-1 lead before losing eight consecutive points to her Spanish rival.
Marin continued her dominance in the second game, losing only nine points.
Tai has played Marin 13 times in her career, winning seven of their encounters. They are both scheduled to play at the Fuzhou China Open from Tuesday next week.
After the match, Tai told the Central News Agency that she has had back pain since her quarter-final against India’s Pusarla Sindhu on Friday, which lasted a grueling 1 hour, 15 minutes.
The Yonex French Open, which carries a total purse of US$750,000, is part of the BWF World Tour Super 750.
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