Tai Tzu-ying breezed past her South Korean opponent on Sunday to become the first Taiwanese to win a BWF World Superseries Finals event.
Tai, who is ranked ninth in the world, beat world No. 5 Sung Ji-hyun 21-17, 21-12 in two straight games to win the women’s singles final in Dubai and walk away with US$80,000 in prize money.
Tai said the easy win came as a complete surprise, as she had thought before the match that she had just a 50 percent chance of coming out on top.
Photo: AFP
“I didn’t expect it to be this easy. Maybe Sung was not at her best and she made many mistakes,” said the 20-year-old, who only found her form late in the season.
“I fell sick twice this year; that’s why I could not compete at a high level. Having won the Hong Kong Open and this event, I expect that my opponents will study me closely, but that’s something I cannot avoid. I will have to adjust accordingly,” Tai added.
“Tai is now as good as the top Chinese players,” the 23-year-old Sung said after her loss. “She is very aggressive and powerful; I found it hard to return her smashes today.”
Tai’s coach, Lee Wei-jen, said the Taiwanese won because of her overpowering dominance from the start.
Until Sunday’s game, Tsai and Sung had each won four of their eight previous encounters. Six of those matches went to three games.
In the first game, Tai quickly surged to a 11-3 lead and Sung’s counterattack fell short. In the next game, the closest Sung got to a comeback was an early tie at 3-3.
After that, Tai never looked back and won the secibd game by a bigger margin than the first.
The five-day year-end tournament began on Wednesday last week in Dubai and featured the eight players who had the best overall performances in the BWF Superseries over the past year.
Chinese world champion Chen Long finished the year on a high after winning the men’s singles final on Sunday, brushing past Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark 21-16, 21-10 in just 47 minutes.
It was Chen’s fourth major title of the season and he secured it in some style, with Vittinghus failing to win another point after tying 10-10 in the second game.
“I’m happy with my game. This is the first time Dubai is hosting such a big event and I’m very happy with the way it was organized,” Chen said. “I believe that with so many Chinese and Indian people living here, badminton has a great future in Dubai and I’m looking forward to coming back.”
In the women’s doubles, Japanese duo Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi handed China their first defeat in a major final in the category for more than a year by beating world champions Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei 21-17, 21-14.
“This result was far from what we expected,” Tian said. “We need to study this game and find what went wrong. Our rivals were very good today; we just didn’t employ the right tactics. We didn’t make many mistakes, but we weren’t patient enough.”
Takahashi said their main goal this year had been the world championships, but they were happy to win the year-ending finale.
“We didn’t have a specific strategy. The Chinese are hard to beat because they usually maintain the attack. We never expected to win in straight games,” she said.
South Korea’s Lee Yong-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong claimed the men’s doubles by beating China’s Chai Biao and Hong Wei 19-21, 21-19, 21-16, while world and Olympic champions Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei took just 41 minutes to beat Chinese compatriots Liu Cheng and Bao Yixin 21-15, 21-12 in the mixed doubles.
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
HAT-TRICK PREP: World No. 1 Sabalenka clinched her first win of the season, as she aims to become the first woman in 20 years to win three Australian Opens in succession Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz yesterday all clocked impressive wins as tennis powerhouses Italy and the US surged into the quarter-finals of the mixed-team United Cup. World No. 3 Gauff swept past Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-2 to avenge a loss at the Paris Olympics, while Fritz took care of Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 in searing Perth heat. That was enough to put the Americans — last year’s winners — into a last-eight clash with China today, while Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan today are to meet defending champions Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, in the other Perth quarter-final. In Sydney, the in-form
Taiwanese e-sports team Ban Mei Gaming (BMG) claimed second place at this year’s Arena of Valor International Championship (AIC 2024) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, after losing to the Thai team Bacon Time (BAC) in the finals on Sunday In the final match, BMG faced BAC, who finished top in the winners’ bracket, but lost 0-4. However, BMG still walked away with US$100,000 in prize money for finishing runners-up. The AIC 2024 began with 16 teams competing in the Swiss Stage, where teams played up to five rounds. Those securing three wins advanced to the Knockout Stage, while teams
Japan’s national high-school soccer tournament is thriving after more than 100 years, attracting huge crowds, millions watching on TV and breeding future stars, despite professional clubs trying to attract young talent. The annual tournament kicked off on Saturday and is still regarded as the pinnacle of amateur soccer with young players dreaming of playing in the final in front of tens of thousands at the National Stadium in Tokyo. Matches are a massive occasion for the whole school as student cheering squads wave flags, bang drums and roar on their teams in a spectacle of noise and color. “All the
RSS