Tai Tzu Ying: A magician with a badminton racquet

Tai Tzu Ying
Tai Tzu Ying

Badminton fans are pretty much familiar with the commentator exclaiming 'unbelievable' while a match involving the World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying's is going on.

Tai Tzu Ying, a 24-year-old girl from Chinese Taipei, is no less than a magician on the badminton court. Currently ranked no. 1 in the BWF rankings, Tai is known for her deceptions and sharp strokes. She has been ruling the rankings since 1/12/2016 (except for the two weeks when Akane Yamaguchi became the world no.1).

Tai has brought revolution in the women's singles category. Many men's singles and men's doubles players are afraid to play the shots that the planet's best shuttler plays with ease.

Backhand cross net shots, reverse slice straight drop from the backhand are some of the shots that were beyond anyone's imagination but Tai Tzu Ying has mastered all of these and she executes them with so much fluidity. Such wizardry on the badminton court has earned her millions of fans around the world.

Tai has won 9 titles out of the 11 finals she had made this year. Here is a glimpse at her head-to-head record against the current top 10 players in the world:

1. Akane Yamaguchi 7-5

2. Chen Yufei 11-0

3. Nozomi Okuhara 4-4

4. Carolina Marin 7-4

5. P V Sindhu 7-3

6. He Bingjiao 7-2

7. Ratchanok Intanon 10-12

8. Saina Nehwal 14-5

9. Sung Ji Hyun 17-9

Tai Tzu Ying has won her last 6 encounters against the reigning world and Olympic champion Carolina Marin. Only Ratchanok Intanon seems to have been troubling Tai Tzu Ying because she too relies on a lot of deception.

The Chinese Taipei ace will be the two-time defending champion at the All England Championship 2019. And if she manages to win the title in 2019, she will become the only player in history to have won the All England Championship for three consecutive years.

For a player with such relaxed hitting style and an eye-pleasing deceptive play, we wish for more victories and titles to come her way.

However, Indian fans will be deprived from watching the amazing Tai play on Indian courts any time soon as she won't be seen playing in PBL 2018-19, a year after mesmerizing Indians with her exploits for the Ahmedabad Smash Masters whom she led to the semi-finals.

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Edited by Sudeshna Banerjee