BADMINTON/Tai bags her first title this season at 2024 India Open Finals

Taipei, Jan. 21 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) rallied from an early deficit to win the women's singles final at the 2024 India Open in New Delhi on Sunday.

Tai defeated China's Chen Yufei (陳雨菲) 21-16, 21-12, in a two-game match that lasted just 42 minutes, to take the title.

Despite Tai's 18-8 against the Chinese shuttler, Chen appeared to have Tai's number early in the match, opening up a 7-1 lead soon after the first game began.

After a slow start, however, Tai started to find her rhythm, putting together a 6-point rally to tie the game.

The Taiwanese ace then got into her zone, at one point taking 12 points in the game while Chen only scored 5, before Tai closed out the game 21-16.

Tai's dominance continued into the second game, which forced Chen to call for time out to regroup her tactics after she fell behind 5-11.

Despite the respite, Chen failed to rally when the game resumed, and Tai maintained a comfortable 5-point lead throughout.

At the end of the game, Tai had demolished Chen 21-12, closing out their 27th meeting with a 19-8 advantage.

The victory in the women's singles at the India Open Finals gave Tai her first gold-medal win of 2024, after missing out last week at the Malaysia Open.

In the women's singles final at that tournament, she fell in the last game to her longtime rival An Se-young of South Korea, Nonetheless, Tai's second-place finish helped boost her world ranking one notch to third.