Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying yesterday dominated China’s Chen Yufei to win her first India Open title, which is also her first of the year.
In a speedy 42 minutes, the world No. 3 pounced on world No. 2 Chen, winning straight sets 21-16, 21-12 in their women’s singles final in New Delhi.
It was Tai’s second victory over Chen this year, after surviving the Chinese shuttler 17-21, 21-15, 21-18 in their semi-final at the Malaysia Open on Jan. 13. Tai has now beaten Chen in 19 of their 27 matches dating back to 2017.
Photo: EPA-EFE
On Saturday, Tai rocked Singapore’s Yeo Jia-min 21-13, 21-18, to ease into her third straight final.
On Friday, Tai was denied a chance at another showdown with longtime rival world No. 1 An Se-young, who retired during her match against Yeo, after the South Korean sustained a knee injury.
Tai’s recent surge began when she won the BWF World Tour Finals last month and finished second at the Malaysia Open.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In the 29-year-old Taiwanese veteran’s first final appearance of the year in Kuala Lumpur, she lost to An 10-21, 21-10, 21-18, but Tai’s performance in the Super 1000 tournament was enough to edge her up to the world No. 3 position.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese mixed-doubles pair Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin on Saturday lost their semi-final match in New Delhi to Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai 21-18, 15-21, 19-21.
The India Open is a Super 750 event, the second-highest-tiered tournaments on the professional badminton tour after Super 1000s.
In May last year, Ye and Lee reached the mixed doubles semi-finals in a Super 500 event, the Toyota Gazoo Racing Thailand Open.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with