World No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying from Taiwan clinched the women’s singles title at the OUE Singapore Open April 16 after defeating Spanish Olympic champion Carolina Marin, winning her fifth successive Badminton World Federation World Superseries title.
Tai defeated Marin 21:15, 21:15 in 38 minutes and took home the grand prize of US$26,250 (NT$800,000) as well as her first Singapore Open title. The competition, running April 11-16 in the Southeast Asian nation, has been held annually since 1987. It became a BWF Superseries-sanctioned tournament in 2007.
“I’ve not thought too much about winning these five tournaments. I think everyone around me is more concerned about these five titles,” Tai said after her victory, adding that she just aimed to give her best performance in each tournament. “In every competition, I hope to discover and learn from my weaknesses, to train and correct them,” she said.
In November 2016, Tai was catapulted to No. 1 in the world under the BWF after she secured the 2016 Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships women’s singles title. A month later she clinched the Dubai World Superseries Finals women’s singles title, followed by victories in both the 2017 Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships in March and the Celcom Axiata Malaysia Open earlier this month.
Tai first made a name for herself in 2011 after becoming the youngest ever top-ranked player in Taiwan at the age of 16. At the 2014 Asian Games, she earned a third place finish, and later that year she became the first Taiwan player to win the women’s singles event at the BWF’s Destination Dubai World Superseries. (KWS-E)
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