BADMINTON/Taiwan's ace shuttler Tai Tzu-ying advances to All England Open semis

Taipei, March 16 (CNA) Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) defeated her Chinese opponent to advance to the semifinals of the women's singles at the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships on Friday.

Tai, ranked No. 3 in the world, bested He Bingjiao (何冰嬌) 16-21, 21-16, 22-20 in a quarterfinal match that lasted just over 45 minutes at the Utilita Arena Birmingham.

In the opener, the players went back-and-forth for while to tie 9-9, but He soon gained momentum and pulled ahead to seal the first game.

Tai got off to a strong start in the second game and was nine points ahead at the mid-game interval. Although He managed to close the gap at one point, it was not enough, as Tai stepped up her combativeness and went on to win 21-16.

Despite trailing 4-11 early in the third game, the Taiwanese player quickly bounced back to level the score 20-20 before securing the next two match points, which gave her a win in that game and a decisive match victory.

She will next face world No. 5 Carolina Marin of Spain in the semifinals.

Also at the All England Open, Taiwanese badminton players Lee Jhe-huei (李哲輝) and Yang Po-hsuan (楊博軒) defeated Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren of Thailand 21-13, 21-17 to advance to the men's doubles semifinals on Friday.

Lee and Yang's next match will be against Malaysian players Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.

In another match on Friday, Taiwanese Olympic gold medalists Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) were ousted from the English badminton tournament after losing to Indonesians Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the men's doubles quarterfinals.