Tzu-ying believes winning is more important than rankings
GENTING HIGHLANDS: Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying has played down her world No. 1 ranking.
The fast-improving 22-year-old scaled the summit for the first time in November last year, overtaking Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain, thanks to a series of consistent displays.
Tzu-ying picked up four titles – Indonesian Open, Taiwan Open, Hong Kong Open and BWF Superseries Finals in Dubai – apart from finishing runner-up at the Malaysian Open and Denmark Open.
She also reached the semi-finals of the All-England and China Open.
The Kaoshiung-born pocketed a staggering US$271,025 (RM1.2mil) to become the highest earner last year.
But the down-to-earth Tzu-ying is not going to brag about it.
“I’m not bothered with the world No. 1 title, it’s no big deal and not important to me,” she said.
“What matters is to win tournaments, play to the level that I desire and try to be a better player each day.”
Now that she is on top of the world, one would expect Tzu-ying to be setting her sights on more major honours.
“I don’t have any specific target for the new season. I always like to take it one step at a time.”
But for this week’s SS Purple League, Puchong United Badminton Club (PUBC) will be counting on Tzuying to deliver as the team bid to win the title for the first time.
Tzu-ying had previously won the title with Muar BC in the 2015 inaugural season.
PUBC will take on Ampang Jaya BC in the quarter-finals at the Arena of Stars at Resorts World Genting today. The winners will face top seeds and defending champions Muar BC in the last four.
PUBC have also beefed up their team with the arrival of Danish women’s doubles star Christinna Pedersen.
The other two big names in the squad are South Korean men’s doubles ace Yoo Yeon-seong and world No. 9 men’s singles Chou Tien-chen of Taiwan.
The other quarter-finals will feature last year’s runners-up Petaling Jaya BC against Wang Yihan and Zhao Yunlei-powered Petaling BC.
I’m not bothered with the world No. 1 title, it’s no big deal and not important to me. What matters is to win tournaments, play to the level that I desire and try to be a better player each day. Tai Tzu-ying