FEATURE/End of an era: Tai Tzu-ying and her legacy

By Chao Yen-hsiang, CNA staff reporter

Late Friday night, former world No. 1 female badminton player Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) officially announced her decision to hang up her racket via social media, drawing to a close a professional career that has spanned over half of her 31 years of life.

The decision came both as expected and as a surprise.

It was expected because, prior to the announcement, Tai had made it clear that the 2024 season would be her last, and she had not competed in any tournament since losing to Denmark's Julie Jakobsen in the round of 32 at the China Open in mid-September 2024.

She applied for ranking protection that October for three months but did not extend it afterward, and her world ranking fell from No. 5 in October 2024 to zero ranking points by September this year.

However, her decision was also a surprise to many, given her achievements and stature in the sport -- a plain farewell that stood in stark contrast to her brilliant career.

Tai became the first Taiwanese badminton player to win the BWF Super Series Finals in 2014 -- the precursor to the BWF World Tour Finals established in 2018 -- and she went on to dominate the women's singles rankings for a record total of 214 weeks between December 2016 and September 2022.

British badminton commentator Gillian Clark once compared Tai's stature in badminton to that of Michael Jordan in basketball, Tiger Woods in golf and Muhammad Ali in boxing, describing her as "the best women's singles player I've ever had the privilege to watch."

For a player like Tai, a farewell match or tour would have seemed well-deserved.

However, as Tai explained on social media, she chose to bid farewell this way because "I don't want you to see me in such a weak form (crying emoji), so I couldn't give you a perfect retirement ceremony."

This sense of imperfection, as Tai called it, somehow reflects her career: dominant as she was, she never captured a gold medal in the four Olympic Games or eight World Championships she contested.

She won her only Olympic medal -- a silver in Tokyo -- and finished runner-up and third at the 2021 and 2022 World Championships, respectively.

When asked by a reporter about her lack of titles on the biggest stages, she responded: "What else do I need to prove?" -- and few could argue otherwise.

Over the past decade, Tai has cemented her status as Taiwan's most iconic athlete.

As of Saturday, she had 1.5 million followers on Instagram and 1.4 million on Facebook.

The Taiwanese athlete with the next largest social media following is Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions outfielder Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲), who captained the Taiwanese team to the 2024 WBSC Premier12 championship, the nation's first major baseball title. He has 409,000 followers.

If anything, Tai has continuously displayed her greatness in ways that transcend the court and national boundaries.

In 2017, when she was ranked world No. 1, she chose to compete in the 29th Summer Universiade in Taipei rather than the BWF World Championships, which were held at the same time.

"I gave up the World Championships and chose the Universiade because it's one of the few chances Taiwan hosts an event of this scale. I felt I had to stay here and support this event with other athletes, hopefully keeping golds in Taiwan," she said in an official Universiade video.

"I want to let Taiwan be seen on the international stage. I think showing Taiwan to the world is a very beautiful thing," she said.

At the same time, she weaved her rivalries with top international players -- including members of the so-called "Fab Four" (Chen Yufei, An Se-young, and Akane Yamaguchi) as well as Pusarla V. Sindhu of India and Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand -- into some of the sport's most memorable chapters, all while nurturing friendships that endured beyond competition.

In an interview, China's Chen Yufei (陳雨菲), who beat Tai in the Tokyo Olympic final and later took a break from competition, said she was surprised to receive a message from Tai expressing concern and respect for her decisions.

"It dawned on me what [Tai] truly means to me," Chen said in the interview with a Chinese magazine earlier this year. "If there is one person who made me the Chen Yufei I am today, it must be Tai Tzu-ying."

Likewise, Sindhu wrote an emotional note on Instagram after Tai's announcement Friday night.

"I won't hide it: I hated playing you. Your wristwork, your deception, your calm brilliance made me dig deeper than I ever imagined I could. Facing you changed me as an athlete," she wrote, adding that their "quiet friendship" over the years went "beyond rivalry."

"Watching you step away feels like losing a piece of my own journey. The sport will miss your magic, and so will I. It's starting to hit me that my generation of players [is] slowly beginning to step away, and nothing really prepares you for that," Sindhu wrote.

At this moment, it is hard to tell whether anyone will match, or surpass, Tai's legacy in the years to come. South Korea's An Se-young may have the potential, but only time will tell.

For Tai's fans, it is better to appreciate what she has brought to badminton and relive the memories she created with her peers on and off the court.

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