Taiwan’s badminton world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying yesterday won her second-round match at the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) Japan Open after a hard fight in the first game of her women’s singles encounter against South Korea’s Kim Ga-eun, with Chou Tien-chen the only other Taiwanese to survive the third day of play.
Tai dropped the first game against world No. 21 Kim in a seesaw battle where the lead never exceeded two points. Tai got to 19-17, but the South Korean scored the next four points to claim game 1 21-19.
However, the Taiwanese star dominated the next two games, winning them 21-13 and 21-10 in a 52-minute match to set up a quarter-final today against Ratchanok Intanon of Indonesia, who beat China’s Jan Yue 21-16, 13-21, 21-19.
Photo courtesy of Badminton Photo
Tai still made mistakes in the second game. She took a 10-6 lead, but was pegged back by Kim, who put together four points in a row to level the scores.
However, after the mid-game break, Tai rattled off five unanswered points to take a stranglehold on the match.
Elsewhere in the women’s singles, Gregoria Tunjung of Indonesia eliminated Taiwan’s Pai Yu-po 21-9, 18-21, 21-9.
Chou was the only other Taiwanese to make it past the second round when he defeated China’s Lu Guangzu 21-9, 21-11 in the men’s singles at the Maruzen Intec Arena in Osaka.
In the men’s doubles, British duo Ben Lane and Sean Vendy beat Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin 21-18, 21-18; and in the mixed doubles, Malaysian pair Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing beat Yang Po-hsuan and Hu Ling-fang 14-21, 21-11, 21-15.
Meanwhile, the BWF said that the Hong Kong Open, which was due to take place in November, has been canceled for the third straight year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the complexities of quarantine measures in the territory.
The event, a Super 500 tournament, was due to take place in Kowloon from Nov. 8 to 13.
“The Hong Kong Badminton Association [HKBA] had been working closely with government authorities to seek special approval on easing some restrictions for event participants,” the BWF said in a statement.
“However, with quarantine restrictions still required for all overseas visitors, HKBA concluded there was no other viable option than to cancel the tournament,” it added.
Hong Kong is one of the last places in the world still imposing quarantine for arrivals, but earlier this month it shortened the quarantine period to three days from seven as the territory seeks to gradually unwind pandemic rules.
The Macau Open, a Super 300 event scheduled for Nov. 1 to 6, has also been called off for the third consecutive year.
Macau’s badminton federation said that it was not possible to host the tournament this year due to travel and entry restrictions to the territory and the ongoing COVID-19 prevention measures that are in place, the statement said.
The BWF World Tour continues with the Japan Open, which is to end on Sunday.
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