Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday staged a massive comeback to reach the final at the BWF Badminton World Tour in China and also snapped a six-game losing streak against South Korea’s An Se-young with a 19-21, 21-15, 22-20 victory.
Tai dropped the first game in her semi-final at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, which was close throughout, but left her facing a high likelihood of departure from the tournament that she won in 2020.
It was her second match in two days against An after the South Korean topped Group A by defeating Tai on Friday.
Photo: AFP
Tai also fell behind early in game 2, dropping to 6-1. She put together a five-point run to lock the score up at 6-6, but quickly fell behind again.
However, at 13-10 down, she put together the longest run of consecutive points in the match — eight — to shut An out of the game.
In the third game, it looked all but over for the Taiwanese star — who has said she is to retire next year — when she was trailing 18-9.
Photo: AFP
“I felt there was no hope in the third game,” Tai told the BWF Web site after the match. “I was trailing by a lot.”
However, a six-point run took her to 19-16, when the final point she dropped meant she faced three match points. Another string of six points and the 72-minute match was over as she improved her record against An to 3-10.
“She’s someone who makes very few mistakes, so there was a lot of pressure on me,” Tai said. “It was tough for me to gain any free points. Towards the end I felt she made a few mistakes as my attack was effective. That was how I caught up with her.”
“Both of us are carrying injuries. I feel like she’s not as agile as she usually is,” she added. “Towards the end it was a matter of who’s more strong mentally and more determined. Both of us are aware of our physical condition, but we refused to give up.”
“I don’t know what happened. I’m just upset I lost it,” An said. “Tai played very well and was steady even though I had a big lead.”
In the final today, Tai faces Carolina Marin of Spain, who beat Chen Yufei of China 21-17, 19-21, 21-13.
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