Kuala Lumpur: World No. 1 women’s singles player Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan came through a pulsating semi-final match to cruise into the 2018 Malaysia Open final on Saturday.
Tai won the opening game 21-15 but coughed up a lot of uncharacteristic errors to lose the second set 19-21 to PV Sindhu of India.
The Taiwanese player was not crushed by losing to Sindhu in the second set. In fact, she played with a feast of rich quality shots and lots of tricky moves to run away with a 21-11 win in the decider. She will defend her title on Sunday against He Bingjiao of China.
He, on the other hand, maintained her unbeaten record against World No. 4 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand as she defeated Intanon 21-17, 21-17 in the semi-finals.
In women’s doubles final, Rio Olympic champions and No. 5 seeds Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi of Japan will earn a chance to exact revenge for their loss to No. 1 seeds Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan in the semi-final of 2017 World Championships when they meet in the Malaysia Open final on Sunday.
Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan are holding a 4-2 career meeting advantage over Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi prior to Sunday’s final.
The 2018 Malaysia Open is a BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament that offers a total prize money of US$700,000.
