CATEGORY | WOMEN’S SINGLES
THE MAGNIFICENT TAI TZU YING! Three finals, three tournament victories and zero defeats from January until the middle of June – the statistics for Tai Tzu Ying in 2017 when it comes to the Superseries are impressive. The young Taiwanese player has dominated this year. BY S T I N E G R E V E
Already after the year’s first Superseries Premier tournament, All England, it was clear that there was a young Taiwanese star to watch out for in 2017. Tai Tzu Ying won the Premier tournament after a victory in the finals against Rachanok Intanon from Thailand. At the next Superseries Premier tournament, Tai Tzu Ying struck again. This time it was at Malaysia Open, when the Olympic champion, Carolina Marin from Spain, was put in her place in the final. Between the two Superseries Premier tournaments was the Superseries tournament India Open. Tai Tzu Ying did not compete at this tournament, and India’s Pusarla Sindhu saw her chance to grab a title on home ground. Again, Carolina Marin had to leave the court as the losing finalist. The unlucky Marin suffered her third consecutive final defeat at the Singapore Open, when, in the second tournament in a row, she had to see Tai Tzu Ying standing above her on the podium. At this point, the powerful women’s singles player from Taiwan had not yet lost a single Superseries match in 2017, and Marin had not yet won a tournament. This winning streak for Tai Tzu Ying was broken at the Superseries Premier tournament Indonesia Open, where she lost in the quarter final. Sayaka Sato from Japan took this opportunity to go all the way to the top and win her first title of 2017. Tai Tzu Ying endured her second defeat of the season, when she lost in the semi-final to Akane Yamaguchi from Japan at Australian Open. In an all-Japanese
final Yamaguchi had, however, to accede to the recently crowned world champion Nozomi Okuhara, who thus won her first Superseries title of 2017. The first tournament after the summer break and the World Championships was Korea Open followed by Japan Open. Tai Tzu Ying, who didn’t play the World Championships, struggled in Korea as she lost in the second round. The final at Korea Open got to be a repetition of the dramatic final from the World Championships between Pusarla Sindhu and Nozomi Okuhara. After one hour and 23 minutes of play Sindhu got her revenge and won her second title of the year. In the following week in Japan Carolina Marin finally got to stand at the top of the podium after having lost three consecutive finals in 2017. In the final she was quite superior against Chinese He Bingjiao and Marin won her first Superseries title in almost two years. Now we’re here in Odense for the DANISA DENMARK OPEN presented by VICTOR. Can Tai Tzu Ying make it all the way this year after losing a very closely played final in last year’s tournament, or will it be one of the other great competitors such as Marin, Sindhu or Okuhara who gets to take home the trophy? Only time will tell, but it seems like that we could be in for quite a drama in women’s singles.