Tai Tzu-ying was on the end of a shock defeat at badminton’s World Championships yesterday, the No. 1 from Taiwan going out in the quarter-finals to China’s He Bingjiao.
It was just Tai’s second defeat in 35 matches, a run which brought five titles and cemented her status as the woman to beat in Nanjing.
However, the 24-year-old was sloppy at times, making a series of unforced errors, particularly at the net, and going down 21-18, 7-21, 21-13 to the sixth seed over three unpredictable games.
Photo: AP
He in the semi-finals is to play Spain’s reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin, who defeated India’s Saina Nehwal yesterday.
The 25-year-old Spaniard and seventh seed is chasing a third World crown and in this ominous form, she looks like she could get it.
Marin destroyed 10th seed and former world No. 1 Nehwal, who cut a demoralized figure by the end of the 21-6, 21-11 mauling.
The Spaniard is particularly vocal and demonstrative on court, shouting or screaming in Spanish after every winning point and before serving.
One member of the audience took to imitating her.
Asked what she was hollering, Marin replied with a laugh: “I cannot tell you. It is just something I keep to myself. It was not a strategy against Saina, it is something I do against any opponent. I do it for myself.”
“I learnt to do this some years ago; it was not something I did from the beginning of my career. That’s impossible, because I was too young,” she added. “I had to learn many things in my career and this is one thing I learnt.”
Nehwal said that she had no complaints about Marin’s behavior.
“The pace she is playing at is quite tremendous, she was very fast,” said Nehwal, who won Commonwealth Games gold earlier this year.
In the men’s competition, Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen fell to Shi Yuqi from China 16-21, 21-15, 21-18, while Taiwan’s Chen Hung-ling and Wang Chi-lin defeated Japan’s Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko 21-11, 17-21, 21-13.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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