TOYOTA Thailand Open: Repeat Final in Bangkok

Tai Tzu Ying evened her career score with Ratchanok Intanon in the latest episode of their classic rivalry, overcoming four match points to set up a repeat final in Bangkok against Carolina Marin.

Saturday’s semifinal at the TOYOTA Thailand Open saw the world No.1 make it 14-all in her head-to-head record with Intanon.

“In the final moments of the match I just enjoyed playing badminton on court again,” said Tai. “For tomorrow, my main issue is managing my unforced errors and from watching Marin’s matches, I can say she’s very fast and I’ll try to keep up.”

Earlier, Carolina Marin had cruised into her second straight final, unleashing too many weapons for An Se Young to handle.

The Korean teenager, all effortless footwork and fine touch, stood toe-to-toe with Marin in the opening game. At 19-all she was in with a chance of taking the lead, but a shot missed the sideline by a few millimetres and from then it was a rough journey.

“I’m much happier today than the rest of the games I played this week,” said Marin. “Sometimes it’s tough for the mindset when you win a tournament just three days ago and you have to start a tournament all over again. You have to keep all your focus every day. So I’m very happy that I could reach my second final.

“I felt like there was more drift in the hall than last week. Today one of the important parts of the game was to control the shuttle. I started on the slow side and she didn’t want to play to the backcourt, so I had to keep all my focus in the front and just try to keep moving there and keep the shuttle on court and not make mistakes.”

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