Olympic silver medalist Tai Tzu-ying’s (戴資穎) dreams of a first Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships women’s singles title were dashed yesterday in Spain after world No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan outplayed her in straight games.
World No. 1 Tai, seemingly hampered by an injury as the match neared its end, lost 14-21, 11-21 to Yamaguchi, who was the more battle-tested of the two entering the tournament, having played and performed well in several events since the Tokyo Olympics.
This was the furthest Tai has gone in the World Championships, as she has not made it further than the quarter-finals despite being a top 10 player since late 2012 and a top five player since mid-2015.
Photo: AFP
Tai seemed poised to do well early on, opening a 7-4 lead in the first game, but Yamaguchi took control, successfully moving Tai around and keeping her pinned deep in the court before striking well-placed drop shots that earned her several points.
Yamaguchi led 11-10 at the break, but then ran off eight of the next 11 points to go up 19-13. She took the game when the Taiwanese rushed a smash wide and then uncharacteristically netted a rather routine forehand into the net on game point.
Between games, Tai removed a band around her right thigh and replaced it with a different wrap, but her movement was clearly affected as the second game progressed.
Tai was in command for the first time in the match after that. She put her Japanese opponent under pressure and won six straight points to go up 7-4 in the second game.
However, just when Yamaguchi seemed to be doubting herself, the Taiwanese made a number of errors to fall behind 8-7.
With the score tied at 9-9, Yamaguchi won 10 of the next 11 points, as the Taiwanese was increasingly unable to move freely enough to retrieve the drop shots that fell in front of her, and when Tai, down 20-14, misjudged a serve by the Japanese, the match was over.
Tai is only the second Taiwanese woman to reach a BWF World Championships final, after Cheng Shao-chieh (鄭韶婕), who reached the finals in 2011, but lost to Wang Yihan (王儀涵) of China.
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