Kuala Lumpur: World No. 1 women’s singles player, Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan had successfully defended her Malaysia Open crown with a straight-set victory against He Bingjiao on Sunday.
Tai, trying to win her third Malaysia Open title, was pushed all the way by He Bingjiao but came through a riveting contest to take the first set 22-20.
The second set was hugely one-sided as Tai started with a bang and quickly ran away with a 12-1 lead before nailing the game 21-12 to clinch her third Malaysia Open title. Tai first won the tournament by beating Yao Xue of China in 2013. She had entered the finals for three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018 but lost to Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the 2016 edition.
“I made a lot of unforced errors in the first set, but when I got those errors under control, I have already fallen behind quite a bit. I then told myself to catch up one point at a time,” said Tai.
“When I was behind with 17-20, my opponent started to make a lot of mistakes, perhaps she was facing more pressure than me, and fortunately I was able to win the first set.”
“I think I still have a lot of rooms for improvement, and there are going to be a lot more tournaments in the second half of this year. I would need to make some adjustments such as improving my stamina,” said Tai.
Tai also took home US$49,000 in prize money, together with 11,000 ranking points to further cement her No. 1 status in the BWF rankings.
The Kaohsiung native will next fly to Indonesia to play at the 2018 Indonesia Open which will be held from 3-8 July in Jakarta. The Indonesia Open is a HSBC BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament that offers a total prize money of US$1.25 million.
