Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying yesterday missed out on her fourth title of the season, losing the Korea Open women’s singles final 21-9, 21-15 to South Korean defending champion An Se-young.
Despite the straight-games loss at Jinnam Stadium in Yeosu, South Korea, the 29-year-old Tai still recorded her best performance in the BWF Super 500 event, winning US$15,960 as runner-up.
World No. 2 An defeated world No. 4 Tai in 38 minutes, for the Taiwanese’s seventh loss to An in the nine matches they have played.
Photo courtesy of Badminton Photo
Tai’s only victory in her five matches against An this year was during the Badminton Asia Championships final in Dubai on April 30.
This year, An, 21, has reached at least the semi-finals in nine of 10 international tournaments and won six titles, failing to reach the last four only at the Indonesia Open last month.
This week, Tai, who in April announced she was to retire at the end of this season, is to open her Daihatsu Japan Open campaign with a round-one match against Canada’s Michelle Li.
Photo courtesy of Badminton Photo
Tai, who is seeded fourth in the BWF Super 750 event, has defeated Li in nine of their 11 matchups, most recently 18-21, 21-13, 21-11 at the Toyota Thailand Open on Jan. 22, 2021.
The Tokyo tournament starts tomorrow and carries a total prize purse of US$850,000. Singles winners stand to take home US$59,500.
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