Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s singles at the BWF World Tour Finals in Hangzhou, China, despite losing to South Korean world No. 1 An Se-young 21-17, 21-15.
Tai has had a difficult year by her standards, reaching only three finals, and had to pull out of the two tournaments she played last month with injuries.
She was hoping to finish the year on a high in Hangzhou, but was nearly eliminated after her loss to An.
Photo: AFP
At the Tour Finals, the eight players in the women’s singles were put into two preliminary round-robin groups of four, with the top two in each group advancing to the semi-finals.
An and Tai finished with 2-1 records, but An placed first in Group A because she won four of six games she played, while Tai won four of the seven.
After Tai lost in straight games yesterday she was in a precarious position and a win by Kim Ga-eun of South Korea over Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia would have sent Tai home.
Fortunately for Tai, Tunjung outlasted Kim 21-14, 20- 22, 21-17 in 63 minutes, leaving both of them with 1-2 records.
Tai could have avoided the drama by beating An or losing to her in three games, but that would have been a tall order against the world No. 1, to whom Tai had lost five times in a row in straight games.
The victory in 49 minutes gave An a 10-2 career record against Tai.
The 29-year-old Taiwanese is due to face Spanish world No. 5 Carolina Marin in the semi-finals today.
The Taiwanese is 1-3 against the Spaniard this year and 11-11 in her career.
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Jannik Sinner continued his quest to become the first man in history to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Danish qualifier Elmer Moller at the Madrid Open on Sunday. The world leader extended his winning streak to 19 matches, a run that began early March in Indian Wells, and he has captured 24 consecutive victories at the Masters 1000 level, dating back to the Paris Masters last October. Searching for a maiden title at this level on clay, Sinner advanced to the round of 16 at the Caja Magica with a 77-minute performance against
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Tennis players are facing an unexpected opponent at the Madrid Open. A stomach virus or food poisoning has affected Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Marin Cilic and others, raising concerns. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka avoided an upset by Naomi Osaka on the court on Monday and said she is trying to avoid illness by sticking to a diet of chicken breasts, rice and salad. The rumor among the players was bad shrimp tacos were to blame. Sabalenka knocked on wood for luck and said, “So far, so good. I heard that I have to avoid those tacos,” she laughed, adding “I stick to the
RSS