Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying holds the record for most weeks ranked at the top of the BWF rankings. In March 2020, she had spent at an incredible 148 weeks as the world’s number 1 ranked women’s player, and her many accomplishments include back-to-back Asian Championships titles, the prestigious All England Open title and gold medals at the 2017 Summer Universiade and 2018 Asian Games. Praised by experts and her contemporaries for her grace and style, the talented shuttler had a remarkable winning rate of 90 % in 2018 and 86 % in 2019 and the Taiwan badminton queen is now focussed on aiming for the gold medal at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.

Tzu-ying was encouraged to start badminton by her father whilst she was at primary school, and by the time she was 12 she had become a national top-group player. In 2009 she made her BWF Grand Prix debut at the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix, before reaching the final of the Vietnam Open and the final of the Singapore Open Super Series on her 16th birthday.

Her big breakthrough came in 2011 when she won her first international title, the US Open Grand Prix Gold Championship. Tzu-ying was still only 17 years old and considers her win as one of her most memorable sporting achievements. She made history in 2012 when she became the youngest-ever Super Series tournament winner at the time after winning the Japan Open Super Series title. Two years later she became the first player for Chinese Taipei to win the season-ending Finals championship.

Tzu-ying first climbed to the peak of the world rankings in December 2016. There are rumours of her hanging up her racket soon after Tokyo, but Tzu-ying is intending to add Olympic Gold to her medal collection first.