Top five achievements of Tai Tzu-ying's career

Tai Tzu-ying won the silver medal in the women’s singles event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Chinese Taipei badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying marked the end of a chapter in her storied career after losing to long-time rival Ratchanok Intanon in a group encounter at the Paris Olympics. The 30-year-old was unfortunate to play the match with a lingering knee injury that has caused her problems since the beginning of the year.

She ultimately fell to a straight games (21-19, 21-15) loss in what could be her final match against rival Intanon. The ending of the match was marked by emotional scenes as the Paris crowd gave her a big round of applause.

Tai Tzu-ying has achieved a lot of major accomplishments in her career and has always strived for the best since starting to train professionally at the age of nine. Here, we look at the five biggest achievements of the shuttler’s career.

5. Winning gold at Asian Games

Tai Tzu-ying’s first major title in her badminton career came at the 2018 Asian Games. She competed, having been unseated as the World No. 1 in the women’s badminton rankings. That perhaps added to her determination and hunger to bag gold in the badminton singles at the Jakarta Asian Games.

Tzu-ying fought her way to the final, where she would come up against Indian shuttler PV Sindhu. She ended up winning the final in straight games.

4. Seven straight BWF Superseries wins

Tai Tzu-ying achieved her best form in the 2016-2017 period when she opted to compete in different tournaments and showcased impressive endurance to perform to her best. From November 2016 to November 2017, Tzu-ying was unbeatable in the BWF Superseries competitions she opted to participate in.

She won seven straight Superseries competitions over the one-year course, which started with her Hong Kong Open win in November 2016 to retain her title at the same competition a year later. In this period, she also won the gold medal at the All England Open and French Open, defeating Itchanon in the former’s final too.

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3. Bagging gold medals at back-to-back Asia Championships

The shuttler showcased impressive consistency at the Badminton Asia Championships in 2017 and 2018. She had impressive outings in the women’s singles in both the editions and managed to bag the gold medal at the 2017 edition, defeating South Korean shuttler Lee Jang-mi in the final.

Tzu-ying was under quite a lot of pressure to retain the championship when she participated at the 2018 edition too. She bagged the gold medal at this edition by defeating Chen Yufei in the final in straight games.

The 30-year-old won the gold medal at the Asian Championships for a third time in 2023, but the fact that she won it in back-to-back editions is even more impressive.

2. Dominance as World No.1

Tzu-ying has set quite a formidable cut-off point when it comes to her brilliant feat of dominating the sport of badminton as the No.1 women’s singles player. She reached the No.1 ranking in the BWF women’s singles in December 2016, after winning the Indonesia Open and Hong Kong Open.

She held onto that position for 72 consecutive weeks before being unseated from the position on 18 April 2018. Tzu-ying would reclaim that No. 1 spot multiple times from 2018 until the current period and has been No. 1 in the rankings for a staggering 214 weeks across her career. This is a world record and a feat nobody else has managed to match yet.

1. Bagging silver medal at Olympics

The highest point of Tzu-ying’s brilliant badminton career came at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she was determined to bag a medal. Before that edition, the shuttler had taken part at the previous two Summer Olympic Games, but lost out at the Round of 16 on both occasions. But, she was determined to break that jinx at the 2020 edition held in Tokyo.

She won her group, ensuring that she wouldn’t have to participate in the Round of 16. In the quarter-finals, Tzu-ying ousted her rival Ratchanok Itanon and then defeated PV Sindhu in straight games in the semis.

However, she ended up losing to Chinese shuttler Chen Yufei in a thrilling, close encounter in the final – having to settle for a silver medal. Irrespective, this was arguably the biggest achievement of Tzu-ying’s career.

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