Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying won her group yesterday in the women’s singles badminton competition to advance to the 16-player elimination round, where she immediately faces a daunting challenge.
The 18-year-old, currently ranked 13th in the world and seeded 10th in London, won her three-player group as expected by defeating Victoria Montero of Mexico 21-6, 21-10.
Tai had previously defeated Anu Nieminen of Finland, also in straight games, to finish atop her group with a 2-0 record and book a spot in the knockout stage.
Photo: Reuters
In her next match, she faces third seed Li Xuerui, one of the three Chinese players expected to sweep the medals in the event.
Li may be the hottest of the three. She has won four of the past five singles events she has played in, the only blemish coming at the Indonesia Open in mid-June when she lost to Saina Nehwal of India in the final.
Tai has a puncher’s chance, having played well in spurts against the 21-year-old Chinese in two recent matches.
She lost 9-21, 21-16, 21-10 to Li at the All England Open on March 1 and 21-8, 21-19 at the French Open in October last year.
Taiwan’s other competitor in the women’s singles, Cheng Shao-chieh, also won in her group to advance to the elimination round.
Cheng, seeded seventh, won her three-player group by defeating Neslihan Yigit of Turkey 21-10, 21-6 yesterday.
Cheng had previously beaten Simone Prutsch of Austria, also in straight games.
In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s “golden duo” of Chien Yu-chin and Cheng Wen-hsing came agonizingly close to clinching a place in the quarter-finals Monday, only to fall to the verge of elimination, but then pull qualification back from the brink yesterday.
Chien and Cheng lost to Jwala Gutt and Ashwini Ponnappa of India, 25-23, 16-21, 21-18 in the second of their three group matches and needed a convincing win over the top pairing in the group — Reika Kakiiwa and Mizuki Fujii of Japan — to have any chance of advancing.
The Taiwanese duo duly obliged by beating the Japanese pairing 21-19, 21-11 yesterday.
Against the Indian duo on Monday, Chien and Cheng took a late lead in the first game, only to squander three game points, a pivotal moment in the match.
“All I can say is that when we reached 22, it’s really too bad that I missed my serve,” a frustrated Cheng said, admitting that they played too passively when they were ahead.
After rebounding to win the second game, the Taiwanese pulled to within 19-18 in the final game and Cheng had a clear shot close to the net to even the score. Instead, she mishit the shuttlecock, sending it into the net.
The match ended a point later.
“The shuttlecock was very close to the net and I was afraid my racket would hit it, so I pulled the racket back too quickly,” Cheng said.
Head coach Liao Kuo-mao said it was a match Chien and Cheng should have won, but did not, leaving him very disappointed.
“We made too many unforced errors,” he said. “If we had taken the first set, we would probably be the ones who are happy now.”
Chien and Cheng were ranked world No. 1 in women’s doubles as recently as April last year, but a run of bad form sent their ranking tumbling to 11th and they were not seen as medal favorites.
In the men’s singles, Hsu Jen-hao was beaten 21-14, 21-10 by Son Wan-ho of South Korea yesterday and eliminated from the competition.
Taiwanese athletes in action
Tuesday, July 31
Archery
Men’s individual
Kuo Cheng-wei defeated Ahmed El-Nemr of Egypt 6-2 in the round-of-16.
Women’s individual
Tan Ya-ting defeated Elena Richter of Germany 6-2 in the round-of-16.
Carina Christiansen of Denmark defeated Le Chien-ying 6-4 in the round-of-16.
Badminton
Men’s singles Group H
Son Wan-ho of South Korea defeated Hsu Jen-hao 21-14, 21-10.
Women’s singles Group K
Tai Tzu-ying defeated Victoria Montero of Mexico 21-6, 21-10.
Women’s singles Group C
Cheng Shao-chieh defeated Neslihan Yigit of Turkey 21-10, 21-6.
Women’s doubles Group B
Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa of India defeated Cheng Wen-hsing and Chien Yu-chin 25-23, 16-21, 21-18.
Cheng Wen-hsing and Chien Yu-chin defeated Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa of Japan 21-19, 21-11.
Rowing
Men’s singles sculls
Wang Ming-hui finished 1st in semi-final F and he progresses to final E.
Sailing
Men’s RS-X
Chang Hao finished 36th of 38 in race 1 and 36th of 38 in race 2.
Swimming
Women’s 200m butterfly heats
Cheng Wan-jung finished 28th out of 28 and was eliminated.
Table Tennis
Men’s singles
Chuang Chih-yuan defeated Andrej Gacina of Croatia 4-2 in the fourth round.
Weightlifting
Women’s under-58kg
Kuo Hsing-chun finished eighth after lifting 99kg in the snatch and 129kg in the clean and jerk.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS