Marin, Tai to meet in OUE Singapore Open final
Taiwan's women's singles world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying may have won four titles in as many tournaments since last November, but she was hardly beating her chest about the prospect of winning her fifth competition on Saturday (April 15).
"The biggest challenge is myself; if I perform like how I did today, I will lose to (Carolina) Marin quickly," said the 22-year-old, after beating Singaporean Zhang Beiwen 21-19, 21-15 in the OUE Singapore Open semi-final at the Indoor Stadium.
Tai will face world No. 2 Marin, who breezed past South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun with 21-9, 21-12, in the women's singles final on Sunday.
The final will serve as a tantalising rematch of the Malaysia Open final last week, where Tai beat the Spaniard, the reigning Olympic champion, 23-25, 22-20, 21-13.
The women's doubles will also see a rematch, that of the Rio Olympic final between Denmark's Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen, and Japan's Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo.
Olympic champions Takahashi and Matsutomo beat South Korea's Jung Kyung Eun and Shin Seung Chan 21-17, 21-17, while the Danish duo eked out a 28-26, 21-11 over South Korea's Chang Ye Na and Lee So Hee in the other semi-final.
Pedersen said: "When it was 26-all in the first game, I said to Kamilla, let's think about the Olympics as it was 28-26 then as well.
"It was also difficult playing on this side of the court in the first game due to the drift and head wind, and I believe that it was difficult for Lee and Chang as well in the second game."
Meanwhile, India is assured of a title at the US$350,000 (S$489,000) SuperSeries tournament, as both Srikanth Kidambi and Sai Praneeth reached the men's singles final on Saturday.
World No. 29 Srikanth beat Indoesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-13, 21-14 in a last four tie, while world No. 30 Praneeth beat South Korea's Lee Dong Keun 21-6, 21-8 in the other semi-final.
In the men's doubles, Denmark's Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen will face China's Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen in the final on Sunday, while All England champions Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong of China will face Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai in the mixed doubles final.
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