CHENGDU, April 28 — Taiwan badminton ace Tai Tzu Ying without a doubt the most successful women’s singles shuttler in her country but winning the Uber Cup medal would be more meaningful before she called it a day at the end of this year.
Tzu Ying vowed to sign off from her last Uber Cup appearance at the Chengdu High-Tech Zone Sports Centre by helping her country to enter the semi-finals here.
“Taiwan had been in the last eight for a few times but I do hope we can make a breakthrough in the semi-finals again after the 2006 edition,” she told reporters at the mixed zone, here today.
The 2006 edition was also Taiwan’s best performance in the world’s most prestigious badminton tournament.
Since then, Taiwan never missed out on reaching the last eight except in the 2014 edition where they crashed out in the group stage, which was also their worst result in Uber Cup.
Tzu Ying has won numerous titles and medals including the 2020 Olympic Games silver, two World Championships medals and 17 World Tour titles thus far.
Earlier today, the world number five survived an intense battle against Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei 21-19, 22-20, to deliver the first point for her country in the Uber Cup 2024 Group B opener.
The 29-year-old also praised Jin Wei for fighting valiantly, which helped her get a good warm-up before a possible clash against Thailand’s top player, Ratchanok Intanon, in the last Group B fixture on Wednesday.
“Jin Wei was very good in front of the net. I haven’t decided whether to play against Australia or not tomorrow. I will discuss with my coach,” she said.
Taiwan opened the Group B campaign with a 4-1 victory over Malaysia while Thailand thrashed Australia 5-0.
Only the top two teams from each group qualify for the quarter-finals. — Bernama
