Tokyo: In the female version of the Lee Chong Wei – Lin Dan rivalry, China’s Tokyo Olympics champion Chen Yufei became the first Chinese women’s singles player to reach the final of the World Championships since 2016 by beating Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan 15-21, 21-14, 21-18 in the semi-finals.
Highlights of Chen Yufei vs. Tai Tzu Ying in 2022 World Championships semi-finals:
Tai who trailed 12-20 in the decider, managed to save 6 match points before hitting the shuttlecock out of bounds to once again end her World Championships without a gold medal.
Chen told reporters that she was focused on the critical moment of the semi-final match and preventing choking under pressure.
“I want to win the women’s singles title for China, but nowadays the women’s singles competition is really tough,” said Chen.
“I want to do my best to win the title,” added Chen.
Saturday’s victory saw Chen narrowing her career head-to-head record against Tai to 7-17.
In another women’s singles semi-final action, defending champion Akane Yamaguchi beat South Korea’s An Se-young 21-19, 21-12 to advance to the final.
“It’s not often that Japan gets to host the world championships, so I’m happy that I could go all the way to the final,” said Yamaguchi.
In the women’s doubles final, the top seeds Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan of China will meet No. 4 seeds Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong of Korea while Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong from China will clash with Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan in the mixed doubles final.
