Tai Tzu-ying yesterday bowed out in the semi-finals at badminton’s French Open after her South Korean opponent avenged a dramatic loss last year against the Taiwanese shuttler.
An Se-young defeated Tai 21-12, 17-21, 22-20 at the Arena Porte de la Chapelle in Paris, overcoming a seven-point deficit in the final game in a reversal of fortunes from their semi-final clash at the BWF Badminton World Tour in Hangzhou, China.
The pair also clashed in the final at the Malaysia Open in January, with An the winner in another closely fought three-game match.
Photo courtesy of Badminton Photo
In game 1 yesterday, An showcased her ability to put together strings of winners as she blew open a tight contest at 12-12 with eight unanswered points to make it 1-0.
Tai took game 2 without conceding the lead and put herself in a commanding position to advance to another final as she prepares to retire from the sport.
She was ahead 18-11 and poised to face Akane Yamaguchi in today’s final after the Japanese beat Chen Yufei of China 21-15, 18-21, 22-20 in the second semi.
However, just as Tai had stormed back from 18-9 down in game 3 in Hangzhou in December last year, An showed that she, too, has the ability to turn seemingly hopeless situations around.
She scored five consecutive points before Tai added two to make it 20-16 and earn herself four match points, but the Taiwanese could not convert any of them as An swept past her with a run of six points.
Tai reached the semis at the US$850,000 tournament with a strong performance in her quarter-final against Aya Ohori of Japan on Friday, clinching a 21-17, 21-10 victory in 38 minutes.
“I just tried to play it my way and avoid making mistakes, which I didn’t do well in game 1,” Tai told reporters after the match.
In the men’s singles, Taiwan’s Wang Tzu-wei lost to Thailand’s world No. 8 Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
Despite sweeping world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen in two games on Thursday, Wang, the world No. 27, failed to fire, losing 21-18, 21-16 in 51 minutes.
In the men’s doubles, Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan were to play Japanese pair Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in the semi-finals after press time last night.
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