Taipei, Sept. 27 (CNA) Tai Tzu-ying finished third Saturday in the women's singles badminton event at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, winning Taiwan's first-ever medal in that category in the regional event.

Tai had to settle for a bronze however after being thwarted by world number one Li Xuerui of China in a hard match in the semi-finals.

Saturday's match kicked off with Tai working hard to catch up with Li, but she ended up losing the first game 21-16.

Tai gained the lead early in the second game, keeping ahead of a ferocious Li to win 26-24.

But Li continued her momentum into the third game, routing Tai 21-8 and smashing the Taiwanese player's hopes of advancing to the finals.

This was not the first time Tai lost to the Chinese player. She has previously encountered Li eight times in her career and lost each one.

Even so, Tai became the first Taiwanese badminton player to move into the semi-finals in the women's single event after beating South Korea's World No. 4 Sung Ji-hyun 21-14, 9-21, 21-17 on Friday.

Tai previously defeated opponents from Japan and Thailand to enter the quarterfinals.

(By Lee Chin-wei and Evelyn Kao)
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