Birmingham: In the All-England Open badminton women’s singles final between Taiwan’s top seed Tai Tzu-ying and Thailand’s No. 5 seed Ratchanok Intanon, the World No. 1 Taiwanese ended the match with a gutsy 21-16, 22-20 win over the former World Champion from Thailand.
Tai secured a convincing 21-16 first set victory, but was trailing for most of the game in the second set.
The No. 5 seed Intanon had a good chance to force a decider when she was leading at 20-18 in the second, but couldn’t finish it, allowing Tai to rally from behind and to reel off 4 consecutive points to beat the Thai player 22-20.
The No. 4 women’s doubles pair Chang Ye Na/Lee So Hee of Korea pulled off the upset of the day by defeating Denmark’s No. 2 seeds Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen to clinch their first ever All England women’s doubles title with a 21-18, 21-13 victory. Their triumph also extended Chang/Lee’s career head to head record against Juhl/Pedersen to 3-1.
