Carolina Marin loses in Hong Kong Open badminton semis

World No. 1 Carolina Marin’s indifferent run of results continued as the World No. 1 lost 17-21, 21-14, 16-21 to Taiwan’s Tai Tzu Ying in the Hong Kong Open semifinal on Saturday. It was Marin’s second loss to Tai in two weeks, after the Spaniard lost last week’s quarterfinal match-up at the China Open. Marin’s defeat dashed out any hopes of a Rio Olympic final rematch with India’s PV Sindhu, who plays local favourite Cheung Yi in the second semifinal later.

Marin, who was looking to reach her first final since winning the Rio Olympic gold in August, lost the opening game to the World No. 3 Tai but looked to stage a comeback after taking the second. Leading 15-12 in the decider, Marin threw away the lead as Tai took seven straight points to make it 19-15, finishing the victor 21-16.

With the win, Tai took her head-to-head record against Marin to 3-4 and set up a title clash with the winner of the second semifinal to be played between India’s PV Sindhu and local favourite Cheung Yi.

PV Sindhu, who won her maiden Super Series title in China, has won the two matches against Hong Kong’s Yi but was stretched to three games on both instances.

Both Yi and Sindhu had tough passages into the semis in Hong Kong Open. While Yi got the better of Saina Nehwal 21-8, 18-21, 21-19, Sindhu scored a come-from-behind quarterfinal 21-17, 21-23, 21-18 win against Singapore’s Liang Xiaoyu on Friday.