Kuala Lumpur: When we talk about some of the greatest comebacks in the history of badminton, Chinese player, Lin Dan’s rally from 16-18, 18-19 down in the third set of London Olympic men’s singles final against Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia to eventually clinch his second Olympic gold medal always springs to mind.
And now, you can add World No. 1 women’s singles Tai Tzu Ying’s heroics at the 2018 Malaysia Masters semi-finals to the list.
In a match between current World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan and former World No. 1 Carolina Marin of Spain, the flashy Tai trailed the Rio Olympic champion Marin 8-16 in the third set. Nevertheless, Tai held her nerves and started chipping away at the gap before tying it up at 20-20 after Marin committed several uncharacteristic mistakes.
Tai kept her cool enroute to winning the grueling three-game match 12-21, 21-15, 23-21 in 79 minutes. The No. 1 seed Tai will then take on No. 5 seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the final.
“Both Marin and I were not in our best. We played patiently and thanks for the support from the crowd who provided extra motivation for me, I was able to win the match,” said Tai.
Ratchanok Intanon survived a marathon third-sets battle with No. 2 seed Akane Yamaguchi on Saturday at the other women’s singles semi-final, ultimately prevailing, 21-15, 16-21, 21-19, after 70 minutes.
In women’s doubles, No. 1 seeds Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan of China bounced back after dropping the first set to defeat No. 4 seeds Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota of Japan 15-21, 21-15, 21-14 in 60 minutes. Chen/Jia are scheduled to take on No. 3 seeds Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen of Denmark in the final.
