Tai Tzu-ying

Tai Tzu-ying is a Taiwanese badminton player born on 20th June 1994. She is a native of Kaohsiung city of Taiwan. She represents Chinese Taipei internationally in Singles and Team events. She currently ranks World no.1 in BWF women’s rankings.

Background:

Tai Tzu-ying was born to Tai Nan-kai and Hu Jung. Her father was a director of the Kaohsiung city’s badminton committee.

She was introduced to badminton at a young age by her father. She began to take up an interest in badminton and started playing the sport while studying in elementary school. She participated in the second division of the National Ranking Tournament and won the singles title. This achievement promoted her to the first division of the tournament and became the youngest shuttler to participate in the first division.

Rise to Glory:

Tai Tzu-ying made her international debut at the of 12 in 2007 at the Vietnam International. In 2009, she made her national debut by representing Kaohsiung city at the National Games and reached the quarterfinals. That year, she won the Bronze medal in Women’s Singles, followed by a Silver medal in the Women’s Team at the East Asian Games.

In 2012, she won the Gold medal and Silver medal in Women’s Singles and Doubles respectively at the World University Championships. In 2013, she won the Silver medal in Women’s Singles and Bronze in Mixed Team at the Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia. That year she won a Silver medal in the Women’s Team at the East Asian Games.

In 2015, Tai Tzu-ying won the Bronze medal in Singles at the Summer Universiade in South Korea. In 2017, she won two Gold medals in Singles and Mixed Team in Taipei’s edition of the Summer Universiade.

In 2020, Tai Tzu-ying won the National Badminton Team Championships title.

Major Achievements:

Tai Tzu-ying received the first breakthrough in 2009 when she won the Silver medal at the Asian Badminton Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In 2010, she competed in the World Junior Championships in Mexico and reached the quarterfinals, where she retired due to an injury. That year, she reached the first Superseries final at the Singapore Open, where she lost to Saina Nehwal.

In 2011, she won her first Grand Prix Gold title at the US Open by defeating Japan’s Sayako Sato in three sets. Tai Tzu-ying made her Olympics debut at the 2012 London Olympics but was knocked out in the 1st round. That year, she won her first Superseries title at the Japan Open. Subsequently, she clinched 11 Superseries titles, including All England Open (2017) and Dubai World Superseries Finals (2014 and 2016).

In 2014, Tai Tzu-ying created history at the Asian Games by becoming the first shuttler while representing Chinese Taipei to win a badminton medal, winning the Bronze in Women’s Singles. The following year, she won the Bronze medal in Women’s Singles at the Asian Badminton Championships in Wuhan, China.

In 2016, with Superseries titles at Indonesia Open and Hong Kong Open, she became the World No.1. That year, she competed at the Rio Olympics but unfortunately knocked out in the round of 16. The following year, she became the Asian Champion by defeating Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi at the Asian Badminton Championships in China.

In 2018, Tai Tzu-ying won her first World Tour title at the Indonesia Masters. She would go on to win 10 World Tour titles, including the All England Open (2018 and 2020) and World Tour Finals (2020). At the 2018 Asian Badminton Championships, Tai Tzu-ying retained her crown, followed by a Gold medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Tai Tzu-ying qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and she is seeded No.2 in the Women’s Singles.