Changzhou: Even though World No. 4 women’s singles player Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan held a 12-1 career meeting record over World No. 2 Chen Yufei of China prior to the 2019 China Open semi-final, but it looked like Chen could crash Tai easily after winning the first set 21-6 on Saturday.
Tai recovered strongly and managed to force a decider by winning the second set 21-13.
“Today’s wind was stronger than my previous two matches,” Tai complained. “I spent a lot of focus to control the shuttlecock in the first set, which put me in a very difficult situation to win the game,” added Tai.
In the third set, Chen was on the verge of victory when she reached match-point at 20-19, but Tai stayed collected and win the next three consecutive points to claim the semi-final match with 22-20.
Tai will meet Carolina Marin of Spain in the final after the Spaniard was pushed to the limit by Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi before winning 20-22, 21-13, 21-18.
In mixed doubles, top seed Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong from China and their second-seeded compatriots Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping defeated their respective opponents on Saturday and will meet each other in the final.
Meanwhile, Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan of China overcame Chang Ye-na/Kim Hye-rin of South Korea 21-13, 23-25, 21-16 in the women’s doubles semi-finals to meet second seeds Japan’s Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi, who saw off their teammates Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota 21-17, 15-21, 21-16 in another women’s doubles semi-final.
