Taiwan's top female shuttler advances to All England Open semifinals

Taipei, March 18 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) on Saturday defeated China's He Bingjiao (何冰嬌) 21-12 and 21-11 to advance to the semifinals of the BWF All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham.

Tai, the world No. 3, needed only 33 minutes to close out her quarterfinal match in straight games at the Utilita Arena.

At the beginning of the match, the Taiwanese shuttler fell behind 4-6 before putting in a burst of six straight points to take the lead.

Although He fought back to level the score at 11-11, Tai won 10 of the next 11 points to run away with the game 21-12.

Tai maintained that momentum at the beginning of the second game, taking an early five point lead at 8-3 which she held onto and even increased, running out a convincing winner at 21-11.

Tai's opponent in the semifinals will be South Korea's An Se Young who received a walkover in the quarterfinals.

The upcoming match will be the players fifth head-to-head, with Tai trailing 4-1, having only defeated Young once in 2020.

Tai is currently also the only Taiwanese shuttler left in the tournament after Wang Tzu-wei (王子維) and Chou Tien-chen (周天成) crashed out in the opening round of the men's singles Tuesday.

Tai has won the women's singles title three times, in 2017, 2018 and 2020.

Meanwhile, Pai Yu-po (白馭珀) lost in the round of 48, while Hsu Wen-chi (許玟琪), who entered the tournament in the last 16, also fell at the first hurdle in the women's singles.

The All England Open Badminton Championships is a BWF Super 1000 event that is being held until Sunday with a total pool prize of US$1,250,000 (NT$38,291,250).