Taipei, July 23 (CNA) Taiwan female badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (???) fell short in her effort to win the Korea Open 2023, losing 21-9, 21-15 in the women’s singles final to South Korean defending champion An Se Young Sunday.
Despite the straight games loss at Jinnam Stadium in Yeosu, the 29-year-old Tai still recorded her best ever performance in the Badminton World Federation Super 500 event, bettering the semifinal she reached in 2019.
World No. 2 An defeated world No. 4 Tai in 38 minutes, the seventh time she has defeated Tai in the nine matches they have played.
Before the Korea Open, An revealed that she has studied the games of the top four female players in the world, including Japanese world No. 1 Akane Yamaguchi and Chinese world No. 3 Chen Yufei (???), after being knocked out from the Super 1000-level Indonesia Open on June 18, expecting the hard work to pay off in her home tournament.
Asked to comment on An’s remark, Tai said “It is quite natural to be comprehensively analyzed given how many years I’ve been playing badminton,” but the key to the game depends on who plays best on the day.
Tai told CNA that she has recently found it difficult to compete against the world’s top three players because she makes too many mistakes.
“The errors I make are not just fouls and faults, but also many returns that aren’t played well and render me too passive in the following plays,” Tai explained.
Tai’s only victory in her five matches with An this year came in the Dubai Badminton Asia Championships final on April 30.
The match history suggests that An is a particularly difficult opponent for Tai, who has a head-to-head record of 12-12 against Yamaguchi and 17-7 against Chen.
This year, An, 21, has reached at least the semifinals in nine out of 10 international tournaments and won six titles, only failing to reach the last four at the Indonesia Open.
Tai’s next event is the BWF Super 750-level Japan Open, which starts on July 25.
