Tai Tzu-ying yesterday thanked her fans and her doctor after exiting at the Paris Olympics a day earlier, beaten 21-19, 21-15 by Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon and failing to reach the round-of-16 of the women’s singles badminton.
Tokyo silver medalist Tai, who played with both knees in braces in Paris, had previously opened up about an issue with her left knee and earlier this year withdrew from the Singapore Open.
“Before I came here I knew I would find it hard to play the game because of my injury,” Tai, 30, who plans to retire at the end of this year, said through tears. “I still tried my best.”
Photo: Reuters
The match lasted 46 minutes.
Intanon previously beat Belgium’s Lianne Tan in the three-person group and advanced as the first-place shuttler. Tai, with one win and one loss, was eliminated along with Tan.
Having received a bye, Intanon advanced directly to the quarter-finals.
Photo: Reuters
Tai and 29-year-old Intanon are long-time friends and rivals. Intanon has often challenged Tai, including in Tokyo in 2021, when she nearly ousted Tai in the quarter-finals.
Tai on Facebook yesterday thanked her fans.
“The result was not what I wanted and I did not want everyone to know that I was injured, but this was what I expected,” she wrote in Mandarin.
Photo: AFP
“I haven’t felt good this month. Along with the pain in my left leg, I also hurt my right leg, to the extent that I had to use crutches for a few days,” she added.
“There is no excuse to lose,” she said. “I could not walk until I got on the court. I do not know how many times I cried, even the day before the game. I did not know whether I could get on court the next day, but I did.”
“Thank you to those who cried with me tonight,” she added. “Thank you for the faith.”
Photo: Reuters
She also thanked her doctor and other support staff.
Tai is a former world No. 1 and was participating at her fourth Olympic Games.
In table tennis, Taiwan had two players remaining in the men’s and women’s singles after Kao Cheng-jui lost in the round-of-16 on Wednesday.
Photo: Reuters
The 19-year-old Olympic newcomer lost to Truls Moregard of Sweden 4-1 in the men’s singles round-of-16, although he pushed Moregard all the way in a 14-16, 13-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-6 loss.
“Silent Assassin” Lin Yun-ju in the men’s singles and veteran Cheng I-ching in the women’s singles both advanced to the quarter-finals with 4-0 sweeps against Darko Jorgic of Slovenia and Natalia Bajor of Poland respectively.
Lin, who finished fourth in the previous Olympics, was to play France’s Felix Lebrun after press time last night, while Cheng, who has tied her best Olympic record, was to play China’s world No. 1 Sun Yingsha.
In shooting, Liu Wan-yu and Lin Yi-chun failed to qualify for the women’s trap final, finishing 25th and 26th among the 30 competitors with total scores of 112 and 110 respectively.
Only the top six shooters advanced to the final, where Guatemala’s Adriana Ruano Olivia won gold.
Although she is 43, Lin, a five-time Olympian, said she would continue to pursue her goal of winning an Olympic medal.
“I will not give up on my goal of winning an Olympic medal. Now that I’ve failed, I will just practice for another four years. I’m not going to give up my favorite sport before achieving my goal,” she said.
As of Wednesday, five of the team’s eight shooters had exited.
The remaining three were Lee Meng-yuan in the men’s skeet, and Tien Chia-chen and Wu Chia-ying in the women’s 25m pistol.
Their events are scheduled for today.
Taiwanese yesterday were also involved in events in tennis, archery and golf.
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