Taiwanese shuttler cruises through opening round of Indonesia Open

Taipei, July 16 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton player Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) finished off a strong opening match against her opponent Tuesday in the women's singles of the 2019 Blibli Indonesia Open, a Super 1000 event on the HSBC BWF World Tour.

Tai, world No. 1 on the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) women's singles rankings since May 3 last year, beat Yeo Jia Min (楊佳敏) of Singapore 21-12, 21-18 in a quick match that lasted only 31 minutes.

She had just competed in the Singapore Open in April, winning the women's singles title against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan. Her other trophy this season also included the Malaysia Open, which took place in the same month.

Tai will next face world No. 23 Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in the second round of the tournament.

The Taiwanese ace will be defending her world title in Indonesia, as well as earning points to qualify her for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Also Tuesday, Taiwanese badminton veteran and world No. 3 Chou Tien-chen (周天成) got off to a good start by beating Suppanyu Avihingsanon 21-12, 21-11 in an easy 35-minute match.

The game marked their fourth encounter, all of which have been won by Chou, who will next play world No. 15 Lin Dan (林丹) of China.

The Indonesia Open, which opened Tuesday and will run through Sunday, has a total purse of US$1.25 million. The tournament is the second super 1000 level event of the season, with the other two being the All England Open in March and the China Open in September.