Huelva: Despite playing in her first international tournament since losing the Tokyo Olympics final to Chen Yufei of China, World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan produced an excellent performance on Saturday to reach the final of the 2021 BWF World Championships.
Tai tamed a spirited challenge from World No. 9 He Bingjiao of China 21-17, 13-21, 21-14 in 57 minutes.
“I am really happy because after playing in the World Championships for so many years, I finally had a breakthrough by reaching the final,” said Tai.
“Previously, my best record at the World Championships was reaching the quarter-finals,” added Tai.
“I hope I could achieve my best result tomorrow,” said Tai after the match.
Tai will face World No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the final. Yamaguchi overcame Zhang Yi Man of China 21-19, 21-19 to reach the final.
In the mixed doubles final, World No. 1 Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand will set up a rematch of the final of 2021 BWF World Tour Finals (Dec 5, 2021) and 2021 Indonesia Open final (Nov 28, 2021) rematch with the World No. 4 Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan on Sunday. Puavaranukroh/Taerattanachai walked away victorious against Watanabe/Higashino at both finals above.
Meanwhile, No. 1 seeds Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan of China will cross swords with the No. 2 seeds Lee Sohee/Shin Seungchan of Korea in the women’s doubles final.