Sibu (Malaysia), Jan 20 (IANS) Spain’s Carolina Marin had victory in her grasp but let a late lead slip away in a 12-21, 21-15, 23-21 loss here on Saturday to Taiwanese World No.1 Tai Tzu-ying in the semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters.

The reigning Olympic gold medallist in women’s singles got off to a fast start at the Axiata Arena against an uncharacteristically lacklustre Tai, who made numerous errors in an uninspired first game, reports Efe.

Tai got back on track in the second game, although the turnaround was more a product of Marin’s errors in the net than her own winners.

The Spaniard then seemed to take full command of the match shortly after the mid-game interval in the decider, stringing together six straight points to take a seemingly insurmountable 16-8 lead.

Tai closed to within three points at 19-16 but then faced four match points when her backhand clear floated wide of the sideline.

Marin mistakenly let the shuttle drop just inside the back boundary line on her third match point and then pushed a shot long to make the score 20-20.

Four points later, the world No.1 clinched victory on her second match point when Marin missed a net shot.

The Spaniard, a former world No.1 who was overtaken at the top of the rankings by Tai in December 2016, said afterward that her inability to manage her nerves cost her the match.

“I had the third set under control, but I wasn’t able to stay calm,” the fourth-ranked Marin said.

Even so, the Spaniard said she could take some positives away from the tournament, the first Super 500 event of the new season and a tournament in which nearly all the top women’s singles players were in action.

“I’m getting back to feeling good on court, and I have to be pleased about achieving one of my objectives, which was to at least make the semifinals,” Marin said after her fifth straight loss to Tai.

Next up for the world No.1 in Sunday’s final will be Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, the world No.5, who edged Japanese world No.2 Akane Yamaguchi on Saturday 21-15, 16-21, 21-19.

The Taiwanese player has struggled lately against Intanon, having lost three of the four matches they played late last year.

In other action on Saturday at the Malaysia Masters, Danish world No.1 Viktor Axelsen stormed into the men’s singles final with a 21-15, 21-11 victory over Malaysian qualifier Liew Daren.

On Sunday, Axelsen will be a heavy favourite over Japanese world No.29 Kenta Nishimoto, who defeated Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in the other semi-final.

The Malaysia Masters is the first Super 500 event of the inaugural season of the BWF World Tour, which comprises most of the year’s biggest badminton tournaments.

Three Super 1000 events (second-highest tier), five Super 750 tournaments (third-highest), seven Super 500 events (fourth-highest) and 11 Super 300 events (fifth-highest) will be held throughout the year leading up to December’s BWF World Tour Finals (highest tier) in Ghangzhou, China.

The 2018 BWF World Championships, which will be held in late July and early August in Nanjing, China, and is the biggest event on this year’s badminton calendar, is not a BWF World Tour event.

–IANS
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