Ronin Akane Yamaguchi

World No.2 Akane Yamaguchi defeated world No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying to win the BWF World Championships women’s singles title.

She thumped Tai Tzu Ying 21-4, 21-11 in Sunday’s final. This is the biggest win of the Japanese shuttler’s career. And this is by far the biggest title for Japanese fans who had a forgetful Olympics.

The Japanese shuttlers were tipped as favourites to win many medals in badminton at the Tokyo Olympics. But they walked away with only one bronze medal from the mixed doubles pair.

Akane Yamaguchi is the only shuttler from Japan to play in all the tournaments post-Olympics. Her impressive run started with back-to-back victories in Denmark and France. During the Indonesia badminton festival, Yamaguchi managed to feature in 1 out of 3 finals.

Yamaguchi put the Chinese Taipei shuttler in an uncomfortable position by stretching points with long rallies. She was more focused, played with better precision, dominated every point, and gave less margin of error.

Tai Tzu Ying was never fully in the match and couldn’t play her natural game due to right thigh and foot niggles. The Tokyo Olympic silver medalist struggled with high clears and failed to maintain a point difference.

Yamaguchi said, "I’ve played a lot of matches over the last few months. There were good moments and bad moments, but in the end, I’m very happy with my performance and very happy with this result. "

Tai Tzu Ying, who was contemplating retirement after winning the world championships gold medal, might just have to delay her plan by another year.