Tai Tzu Ying’s greatness is still unmatched to few. The world’s top 1 women’s singles player is still dominating elite tournaments throughout 2018. Tai Tzu Ying won All England 2018, another HSBC BWF World Tour Super 1000 level tournament. Prior to that, she also managed to bring home the title from the Daihatsu Indonesia Masters 2018 and Badminton Asia Championships 2018.
Tai Tzu Ying is the No. 1 seed on this year’s Blibli Indonesia Open 2018, where she is expected to grasp the women’s singles title. The player who was born in June 25 th , 1994 has also won the BCA Indonesia Open 2016 title. She is currently on top of her career, even Gillan Clark, the badminton commentator, is highly praising her to be the world’s best women’s singles player due to her talent and her unpredictable shots.
However, Tai Tzu Ying must be vigilant about potential hurdles from a couple of uprising women’s singles players who are working hard to grasp any title coming their way. There are two potential rivals from japan for Tai Tzu Ying, namely Akane Yamaguchi, the second ranked women’s singles player and Nozomi Okuhara, the 2017 world champion.
Three years ago, Ratchanok Intanon managed to be the champion in Indonesia Open 2015. The match between Intanon and Tai Tzu Ying has always been awaited by many, thus it would not come as a surprise if Intanon could stop Tai Tzu Ying’s title hope. Intanon has won a title this year through Malaysian Masters 2018.
In addition to that, P.V Sindhu (India), Carolina Marin (Spain), and Chen Yufei (China), are also the list of names that should not be underestimated. Last year, the Japanese player, Sayako Sato, made a shock by taking the highest podium in the tournament. Sato is the first Japanese women’s singles player to won Indonesia Open. Furthermore, Japan has a huge opportunity to send one of its representatives to the final match. The route may not be easy, but the possibility of Sato making yet another surprise is highly expected.
Indonesia, as a host, may still be underperforming in this event. Gregoria Mariska Tunjung is probably the only hope for Indonesia. Gregoria is a gold medalist during World Junior Championships 2017 in Yogyakarta. Despite of individual performance in recent tournaments, Gregoria did a great job playing her part in Uber cup 2018.
Gregoria won all the four matches she played during Uber Cup 2018. She beat Yaelle Hoyaux (France), Goh Jin Wei (Malaysia), Gao Fangjie (China), and Nitchaon Jindapol (Thailand) on that occasion.
Indonesia sends three women’s singles players for Blibli Indonesia Open 2017. Other than Gregoria, Fitriani and Dinar Dyah Ayustine are registered to play on this “Five star” grade tournament.
