Taiwan’s top badminton player, Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎), yesterday defended her world No. 1 ranking with a straight two-game victory over China’s He Bingjiao (何冰嬌) at the Malaysia Open final.
Tai extended her winning streak in major tournaments to 24 games in a row.
Tai fought off the challenge from He, prevailing 22-20 in the first game, and had an easier time cruising past her opponent 21-11 in the second game, taking 35 minutes to win.
Photo: EPA
Tai had also won the title last year.
“At first, I made quite a few errors, and it took a while for me to settle down and get my game going. So I had to play catchup and just took it one point at a time. She reached game point first, but I did not want to give up and I just kept going at it,” Tai said after the match.
“In the second game, He made more errors at the start, so I pulled away to an 11-to-1 lead. She wanted to close the gap, but it was too much pressure on her,” Tai added.
She won US$49,000 prize money for her victory and gathered 11,000 points for her Badminton World Federation (BWF) ranking.
Going into yesterday’s match, Tai had a 4-1 record against He, who is ranked world No. 7. He last defeated Tai in the 2016 Singapore Open.
This year’s Malaysia Open took place from Tuesday to yesterday at Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil. The tournament is an HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament, and the prize money totaled US$700,000.
Tai is next to play at the Indonesia Open, a BWF World Tour event, which is to take place at Istora Gelaro Bung Karno from tomorrow to Sunday, with US$1.25 million in total prize money.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday declared emergency martial law, accusing the opposition of being “anti-state forces intent on overthrowing the regime” amid parliamentary wrangling over a budget bill. “To safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness, I hereby declare emergency martial law,” Yoon said in a live televised address to the nation. “With no regard for the livelihoods of the people, the opposition party has paralysed governance solely for the sake of impeachments, special investigations, and shielding their leader from justice,” he
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
RSS