Tai Tzu Ying, one of the greatest women single’s player the World has ever seen has never failed her fans with her performances. She has given birth to some of the most spectacular performances in her career. Her unsurpassable record makes her rule supreme at the top of the World rankings.
Nonetheless, in her two spells of carrying the World no. 1 rank for 148 weeks, she surpassed the previous record of 124 weeks set by the Chinese player, Li Xuerei.
Currently, she is ranked World no. 1 with 97,575 points. To date, she has won 10 World Tour titles, 12 Superseries titles, and 3 Grand Prix titles throughout her career.
Well, it is of surprise that the ace shuttler has given the badminton fraternity some of the best performances in Women singles. Take a look at her five best performances.
2012 Japan Open- Youngest player to win a Superseries
The 18-year-old was the 10th seed at the 2012 London Olympics. She came through all the preliminary rounds with straight wins but eventually lost to Li Xuerei of China in the round of 16.
Tai quickly rebounded over this disappointment by winning the Japan Open Superseries title in September. The teenager edged Japanese Eriko Hirose 9-21, 21-9, 21-14. Moreover, she was the fifth seed at the event and came from behind to claim victory in a 57-minute match scripting history for her country by becoming the first Taiwanese to win a Super Series singles event.
Remarkably, she became the youngest-ever winner of a Superseries tournament (currently the third-youngest player, after Ratchanok Intanon won the India Open in 2013, and Akane Yamaguchi won the Japan Open 2013).
2014 Superseries Finals
Tai avenged her loss of being deprived of the title when she lost against Li Xuerei in the finals of the 2013 Superseries finals. This time the final was against Sung Ji Hyun and the Taiwan ace was extremely focused from the beginning of the match, not willing to give any points to the Korean.
The 20-year-old shuttler, used all variations of shots while releasing some thundering smashes down the line, forcing Sung Ji Hyun to abdicate, 21-17, 21-12.
It was a revenge for Tai as she was beaten in two finals last year by Sung. Tai changed her fortune in 2014 which saw her holding the trophy that she bravely earned.
Notably, she became the first player from Chinese Taipei to win the season-ending Finals championship. She repeated this feat with her victories at the All-England Open (2017), Asia Championships (2017), and Asian Games (2018).
2016 Superseries Finals
Tai won the Superseries finals in Dubai for the second time in her career. This was a rematch of the 2014 Super Series finals against Sung Ji Hyun and Tai rolled a 21-14, 21-13 win over the Korean.
The Taiwan ace not only became the second player to win the Superseries finals title two times ( after Li Xuerei) but also scripted history by becoming the first women singles player to reach the final of the event three times.
In the same year, Tai became World no. 1 for the first time in her career and her rank not being disturbed for 72 weeks till 18 April 2018.
2018 Asian Games Gold
Tai Tzu Ting defeated PV Sindhu 21-13, 21-16 in the women’s singles final of the Asian Games to claim the gold medal. Sindhu was soundly beaten in just 39 minutes in straight sets.
Tai became the first Chinese Taipei player to win a medal at the Asian Games. Remarkably, Sindhu was also the first Indian athlete to reach the finals of the Asian Games.
After winning her next title- Denmark Open, Tai became the second player in the women’s singles category to break 100,000 points, the first being Li Xuerei from China, who led the points by 101,644. Eventually, after reaching the finals of the French Open in the same year, her points went up to 101,667, making her the highest point holder in the women singles history.
2020 All England Open
Tai Tzu Ying emerged victorious from at the All England Open, overcoming defending champion, Chen Yufei, 21-19, 21-15. With this, she avenged her last year’s defeat to Chen at the finals. Remarkably, this was her third All England title in four years. The 25-year-old’s previous titles came in 2017 and 2018 and she clinched a third with an impressive style.
The splendid match was against World no. 1, Chen Yufei and World no. 2, Tai Tzu Ying and was characterized by brilliant attacks from Tai and excellent defensive skills from Chen.
However, at the end of the first set, the Chinese shuttler could not hold back the relentless offense of Tai, who just edged a tight first set 21-19. The second set looked just as tight as the first but Tai found a foothold and took it by 6 points, 21-15 to win the match.
Tai became the third women singles player to win the coveted title three times after Xie Xingfang (2005, 2006 and 2007) and Tine Baun (2008, 2010 and 2013).
Final Thoughts
Despite Tai’s unsurpassable record, she still misses out on an Olympic and World Championship medal. Hopefully, she would be able to turn the table other way round at the Tokyo Olympics and fill up the emptiness of an Olympic medal.
However, Tai’s performances over the last few years makes her an exemplary player in the history of World Badminton.
