Taiwan’s number one badminton player, Tai Tzu Ying, ensures that she will continue to compete when the 2021 tournaments take place. Previously, Tai Tzu Ying had hinted that she would hang her racket or retire at the end of this year. However, as time passes by and the Covid-19 pandemic that hit the world, Tai hold back her wish for retirement.
The 26-year-old athlete confirmed that she will still play next year and defend his country at the Tokyo Olympics, which suffered a year-long delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “I will keep playing until the end of next season before I rethink the decision. For now, I want to finish next season’s schedule first,” said Tai.
“Without the current competition, it means that there will be less coverage about me in the media. I hope the public doesn’t forget about me,” Tai said. Like other world elite badminton players, the last tournament that Tai Tzu Ying participated in was the All England Open 2020.
In additon, Tai appeared as a champion at the BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament which took place at the Birmingham Arena, Birmingham, England, 11-15 March. The closest Tai will play is at the Uber Cup 2020 in Aarhus, Denmark, 3-11 October. Based on the drawing, Taiwan is in Group A along with Japan, Egypt and Spain.
Currently, Tai and other Taiwanese fighters have begun to return to training. Regarding the length of the tournament delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Tai Tzu Ying considered it had a positive effect on her.
Tai said that the postponement of a number of tournaments on the BWF 2020 calendar gave her the opportunity to recover her stamina after undergoing a busy season in the past few years.
“I can use this pandemic as a period of rest because I have been undergoing a long, tight and high level competition schedule,” Tai said. “This is a good time to rest and get more time to prepare for the Olympics,” Tai stressed.
Tai has became world No. 1 in the women’s singles at the age of 22. She holds the record for most weeks ranked at the top in BWF history with 148 weeks (as of 17 March 2020).
