Taipei, March 18 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) beat China’s He Bingjiao (何冰嬌) 21-12 and 21-11 on Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the BWF All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham.
Tai, the world No. 3, needed just 33 minutes to wrap up her back-to-back quarterfinal tie at Utilita Arena.
Early in the game, the Taiwanese commuter trailed 4-6 before scoring a flurry of six straight points to take the lead.
Although he fought back to level the score at 11-11, Tai won 10 of the next 11 points to run away with the game 21-12.
Tai maintained that momentum early in the second game, taking a five-point lead at 8-3, which she held and even increased, leaving a convincing winner at 21-11.
Tai’s opponent in the semi-finals will be South Korea’s An Se Young who received an upset in the quarter-finals.
The next game will be the players’ fifth head-to-head match, with Tai trailing 4-1, having beaten Young only once in 2020.
Tai is currently also the only Taiwanese commuter remaining in the tournament after Wang Tzu-wei (王子維) and Chou Tien-chen (周天成) crashed in the first round of men’s singles on Tuesday.
Tai has won the women’s singles title three times, in 2017, 2018 and 2020.
Meanwhile, Pai Yu-po (白馭珀) lost in the round of 16, while Hsu Wen-chi (許玟琪), who entered the tournament in the round of 16, also fell at the first hurdle in women’s singles. .
The All England Open Badminton Championships is a BWF Super 1000 event running until Sunday with a total prize pool of US$1,250,000 (NT$38,291,250).
