Taipei, Sept. 8 (CNA) Tokyo Olympic badminton medalist Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) secured a slot in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) China Open women’s singles semifinals after coming out on top against Carolina Marin in a three-set dogfight Friday.
The Taiwanese ace, ranked world No. 4, will square off against world No. 1 An Se Young in the next round of the Super 1000 event, in a bid to net her third ever victory over the 21-year-old South Korean.
Tai has lost eight of her previous 10 matches against An, only managing to win her first of the year at the Asia Championships held in Dubai in April, before she lost to the world No. 1 in their next four matches.
In the match at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium Friday, Tai took 68 minutes to take down the Spanish titan.
The two were level after the first two games and tied at 17-17 in the last.
Marin appeared to have the upper hand when Tai failed a return, putting her 19-18 ahead.
But Tai fought back by nailing three points in a row, including a smash that ended the decisive game in her favor.
The result marked Tai’s 11th triumph out of the 21 matches played between the pair and broke the Taiwanese shuttler’s two-match losing streak against the Spaniard.
However, Tai told CNA there was not much time to celebrate the win. “It’s just a game. [I] still have a lot to improve. I will recover soon and hope I come to the match tomorrow in a better form.”
2023-09-08 07:00:00
#Tai #defeats #Marin #badminton #China #Open #advances #semifinal
