The tournament's top-seed Wang Shixian of China overcame a tough semifinal showdown against her compatriot, the fourth-seeded He Bingjiao, to earn her ticket to the women's singles championship round of the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) Chinese Taipei Open Grand Prix Gold at the Taipei Arena on Saturday.

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According to Inside the Games, the former world No. 1 Wang Shixian was obliged to play the game extremely hard by the 19-year-old He, who was the 2016 Swiss Open champion, to eventually wrap the match with a hard-fought 21-18, 17-21, 21-18 victory. The thrilling semifinal match between the two top Chinese badminton aces was the longest match of the day, lasting 56 minutes.

With the victory, the BWF's current women's singles world No. 8 Wang Shixian will be facing home crowd favorite and the world No. 9 Tai Tzu Ying, who eased past Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand in the other semifinal clash 21-15, 21-14. The 22-year-old Taiwanese is the event's second-top seeded player and the newly crowned tournament champion of the BCA Indonesia Open 2016 in Jakarta.

The event's title clash between Wang Shixian and Tai will mark the' 12^th official meeting between the two elite female badminton players. According to the BWF, the 26-year-old native of Suzhou, Jiangsu has the edge considering their past 11 matchups with a head-to-head record of 7-4.

The last time that Wang Shixian got the better of Tai was on March 12, 2016, in a semifinal round encounter in the US$550,000 Yonex All England Open in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Tai has won her last two matches with Wang at the Celcom Axiata Malaysia Open in April and in June at the BCA Indonesia Open.

TagsWang Shixian, bwf 2016, bwf rankings, chinese taipei open 2016, tai tzu ying