Bangkok: World No. 1 women’s singles player Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan was once again pushed to the brink by Carolina Marin of Spain in their third consecutive finals in three weeks on Sunday, but this time, the Taiwanese dug deep to pull out the victory in the final of 2020 BWF World Tour Finals.
Down 10-15 in the decider, Tai sharpened her focus and attacks at Marin’s right backcourt to force Marin to commit errors and soon opened up opportunities for counter-attacks, narrowing the gap at 17-19. With roars after each point from both players, Tai reeled off the next four points to claim the entertaining and back-and-forth contest that lasted 67 minutes with a final score of 14-21, 21-8, 21-19.
“I kept telling myself that I had to play patiently before today’s match. In the previous matches, all my mistakes were caused by my impatience,” said Tai.
This was Tai’s first victory against Marin in their third final meeting in the last three weeks. Marin has defeated Tai in the finals of both the YONEX Thailand Open and Toyota Thailand Open.
It was also Tai’s third season finale title, after winning the 2013 and 2016 Dubai BWF Super Series Finals. Only Susi Susanti of Indonesia and Li Lingwei of China have captured more titles than Tai. Susanti won six while Li won four titles in the previous version of BWF World Tour Finals called World Badminton Grand Prix Finals.
The women’s doubles final was one of those matches that were riveting and rollicking, which kept the audience awake when World No. 4 Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan saved 6 match points in the second set, to eventually claim the victory with 15-21,26-24, 21-19 in a 92 minutes marathon battle against compatriots and World No. 6 Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong.
This victory was sweet revenge for Lee/Shin after they lost to Kim/Kong in the final of Toyota Thailand Open last Sunday.
In mixed doubles, Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand celebrated their third consecutive titles in three weeks after overcoming Korea’s Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yujung 21-18, 8-21, 21-8 to lift the 2020 BWF World Tour Finals title on home turf.
