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.
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