(Image taken from Tai Tzu-ying's Facebook 戴資穎臉書www.facebook.com)

Taipei, Jan. 19 (CNA) World No. 1 Taiwanese badminton player Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) defeated Chen Yufei (陳雨菲) of China Friday 21-18, 21-15, progressing into the women's singles semifinals at the 2018 Malaysia Masters.

From the start of the match, Chen placed tremendous pressure on Tai with the score see-sawing to 18-18 at one point, but after that the Taiwanese scored three consecutive points to win the first game.

The second game saw Chen picking up pace for a short while until Tai, who was up 5-4, started to add horsepower to widen the gap, taking the score to 21-15, and securing victory.

The win will allow Tai to face Carolina Marin of Spain in the semi-finals of the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) World Tour Super 500 Perodua Malaysia Masters 2018.

The tourney, which is being held from Jan. 16-21 in Kuala Lumpur's Axiata Arena, offers a prize money of US$350,000.

(By Lee Chin-wei and William Yen)
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