Kuala Lumpur: Taiwan’s World No. 1 women’s singles player Tai Tzu-ying exacted revenge for the painful 2019 All England final defeat with a 21-14, 21-19 straight-set victory over World No. 2 Chen Yufei of China in the Malaysia Open semi-final on Saturday.
Tai dominated the first set by outlasting the 21-year-old Chinese player 21-14. The Taiwanese player was quickly running to a 16-11 lead in the second, but she seemed to lose her focus by making some uncharacteristic mistakes to find herself down 17-18.
The No. 1 seed from Taiwan quickly regrouped and recovered her composure to breeze past Chen 21-19 to set up a final encounter with No. 4 seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan next, as Yamaguchi was equally impressive in her semi-final win over teammate and No. 2 seed Nozomi Okuhara, winning 21-15, 22-20 in 42 minutes.
Meanwhile, the women’s doubles final saw Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan and Du Yue/Li Yinhui had set up an all-Chinese final on Sunday.
The mixed doubles semi-final saw World No. 2 Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping, eased past Malaysia’s unseeded Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing 21-13, 21-17 in just 35 minutes.
In another all-Chinese match-up, Wang/Huang will face World No. 1 Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong in the mixed doubles final.
