Taiwan badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying advanced to the 2024 Japan Open semi-finals after defeating the host country’s Natsuki Nidaira in straight games 21-13, 21-14 yesterday.
Although Tai came out victorious, the 43-minute match was not without difficulties for her due to a left knee injury that has troubled Tai for about seven months.
After taking an 11-point lead in the first game to reach 15-4, Nidaira found her momentum to poise for a comeback and took three consecutive points.
Photo: AFP
When the Japanese shuttler was about to score her sixth point, Tai overextended her injured left knee in an attempt to return the shuttlecock to no avail.
The toil Tai put on her left knee for the attempt forced her to take a time out where on-site medics applied cold spray on her.
The Taiwan ace decided to play through the injury, returning to the court after a brief rest to win the opener 21-13.
Photo: AFP
Tai went on to lead the second game off to a good start 6-4 in her favor before ending the game 21-14 to advance into the semi-finals.
Yesterday’s match was the second career face-off between the two following last year’s Badminton Asia Championships, where Tai not only emerged victorious but also went on to win the title.
Tai is to next face Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan for a chance to win her final Japan Open in what is her last season before retirement.
Photo: AFP
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen advanced to the semi-finals after upsetting Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand 21-16, 21-10.
Before their quarter-final, Chou was 6-1 against Wangcharoen over seven previous encounters.
Chou is to next face the host country’s Kodai Naraoka, who dispatched Chou’s compatriot Wang Tzu-wei to reach the last four.
The Taiwan ace beat Naraoka earlier this month at the Paris Olympics in the men’s singles round-of-16.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS