BADMINTON/Taiwan's Tai Tzu-ying advances to 2024 French Open semis

Taipei, March 8 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) is set to face off against South Korea's An Se Young in the women's singles semifinal of the 2024 French Open on Saturday after sweeping Japan's Aya Ohori 2-0 on Friday.

Ranked world No. 3, Tai will take on the world No. 1 from South Korea in the Super 750 event in Paris for their second encounter of the year, nearly two months after her loss to An in the Malaysia Open finals.

Tai dominated her match against Ohori, clinching victory in just 38 minutes with game scores of 21-17, 21-10, extending her head-to-head record against Ohori to 10-1.

In the first game, Tai and Ohori stood neck and neck, tied at 17, before Tai pulled ahead with a 4-0 run to take a 1-0 lead.

Game 2 saw Tai maintain her lead throughout, with the margin reaching 12 points at its largest when Tai led 19-7, ultimately securing the victory with ease.

"I just tried to play it my way and avoid making mistakes, which I didn't do well in Game 1," Tai told CNA after the match. "It doesn't matter who I will play next, the bottom line is to play it my way and play it well."

An Se Young has been known as Tai's kryptonite, defeating the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist from Taiwan 11 times in their previous 14 matches.

However, An has been plagued by an injured right knee for months, during which she yielded to Tai at the 2023 BWF World Tour Finals in Hangzhou, China last December, and was forced to withdraw from her quarterfinal match with Singapore's Yeo Jia Min (楊佳敏) at the India Open in January.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Wang Tzu-wei (王子維) was eliminated from the men's singles event following a straight games loss to Thailand's world No. 8 Kunlavut Vitidsarn.

Despite sweeping world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen 2-0 on Thursday, Wang, the world No. 27th player, failed to pull out another upset two days in a row, yielding to Vitidsarn 21-18, 21-16 after a 51-minute battle.