Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying this week became the first women’s singles player to spend 200 weeks ranked as the top player in the world in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings.
Tai, who won the women’s singles silver at the Tokyo Olympics last year, continues to lead the world rankings with 108,800 ranking points, just ahead of world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, who had 105,149 points, the BWF said on Tuesday.
Yamaguchi defeated Tai in the women’s singles final at the most recent World Championships in Spain last month.
Photo: AP
The ranking points are usually from a player’s 10 best performances in the previous 52 weeks, but because of COVID-19 disruptions to international badminton events, the rankings account for the best 10 events dating back to week 14 of 2019.
Of Tai’s best 10 performances, six have come since late 2020, and the rest are from 2019.
The 27-year-old first powered into the top spot in December 2016 to become Taiwan’s first-ever women’s badminton player to secure the world No. 1 ranking.
Over the past five years, she has dropped out of the No. 1 spot four times: April 21 to May 1, 2018; July 30 to Sept. 23, 2019; Oct. 28 to Nov. 12, 2019; and Dec. 17, 2019, to March 16, 2020.
Her lowest ranking during that time was world No. 4 in September 2019.
Tai’s reign at No. 1 far exceeds that of China’s Li Xuerui, who was the top-ranked player for 123 weeks from late 2012 to mid-2015.
Last year was excellent for Tai, who achieved the first two podium finishes of her career at an Olympic Games or World Championships.
She also won the BWF Female Player of the Year award last month in recognition of her achievements in 2020 and last year.
Tai’s first tournament this year would likely be the German Open, March 8-13, followed by the All England Open, March 16-20.
Tai won the All England Open in 2017, 2018 and 2020.
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