Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday defeated her Chinese opponent to advance to the semi-finals in the women’s singles at the All England Open Badminton Championships.
She was to play world No. 5 Carolina Marin of Spain in the semis after press time last night.
The Taiwanese world No. 3 bested He Bingjiao 16-21, 21-16, 22-20 in 45 minutes in their quarter-final at the Utilita Arena Birmingham.
Photo: AP
The opening game of their match at the BWF Super 1000 tournament was a back-and-forth affair until 9-9, when He gained momentum to close it out.
Tai got off to a strong start in the second game and was nine points ahead at the mid-game interval, leveling the match despite a rally by He.
Tai fell behind 4-11 in the third game, but bounced back to level the scores at 20 before securing the next two points to claim a tight victory.
South Korea’s world No. 1 An Se-young and Akane Yamaguchi of Japan were to play the other semi-final last night.
In the men’s doubles on Friday, Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan defeated Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren of Thailand 21-13, 21-17 to advance to the men’s doubles semi-finals.
They were to play Malaysian pairing Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik following Tai’s semi-final.
However, Taiwanese Olympic gold medalists Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin were eliminated in the men’s doubles, losing to Indonesians Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto 21-14, 24-22.
On Thursday, Lee Yang and Wang upset world No. 2 pairing Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang of China 22-20, 19-21, 21-16, one of their best performances since winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
In the mixed doubles on Friday, Robin Tabeling and Selena Piek of the Netherlands got the best of Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin, winning 11-21, 21-19, 21-19.
In the men’s singles, world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen crashed out on Friday, beaten 8-21, 21-18, 21-19 in the quarter-finals by Indonesian fifth seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
Additional reporting by AFP
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