Jakarta: After the World No. 1 women’s singles player Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan suffered a narrow defeat to Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in last Sunday’s Malaysia Masters final, Tai has reached her second consecutive final after a hard-fought win over eighth-seed He Bingjiao of China on Saturday.
Tai got off to a slow start in her first match and was trailing most of the game against the Chinese player before losing the first set 19-21.
The Taiwanese player was struggling against He Bingjiao earlier in the second set, before pulling off a 7-2 run at the end of the game to force a decider with a 21-15 win. Early in the third set saw a bunch of seesaw actions between Tai and He as the World No. 1 eventually raced away with a 21-15 win in the decider.
Tai is set to play India’s Saina Nehwal in the final.
Meanwhile, Nehwal held off a thrilling fightback from Thailand’s No. 4 seed Ratchanok Intanon 21-19, 21-19 to win their semi-final match.
“I’m pleased to reach the final and want to maintain the way I’m playing, and I don’t want to think too much about who I will meet in the final,” said Nehwal.
In women’s doubles, No. 8 seeds Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu of Indonesia got the most overwhelming crowd support on Saturday as they came back from dropping a set to beat No. 5 seeds Lee So He/Shin Seung Chan of Korea 21-11, 17-21, 21-17 in 69 minutes.
Polii/Rahayu will take on Rio Olympic Champions Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi of Japan in the final.
