Tai Earns Shot at Third Finals Crown – World Tour Finals: Day 4
Tai Tzu Ying made her fourth season-ending final, making amends for her group defeat to Nozomi Okuhara with a straight-games victory in the semifinals of the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2019 today.
· DEV SUKUMAR
The world No.1, who made her first World Superseries Finals title clash six years ago to this day, and then won the crown in 2014 and 2016, was mostly on the mark, although there were phases when her slips threatened to turn into a slide. When she got her attacking shots on target, there was little Okuhara could do to repel her.
Tai got going from 4-9 in the first, her torrent of inventive shots forcing Okuhara to scamper from corner to corner, taking 12 of the next 14 points.
She was nearly flawless in the early second game, but at 9-5 up, old problems of inconsistency returned. Four straight mistakes gave Okuhara the edge, and Tai continued to have her trouble in keeping the shuttle on target. To her good fortune, her opponent too did not have the best of days, for Okuhara was not her usual consistent self. There were no game-end jitters for Tai as she closed it out 21-15 21-18.