Top 5 badminton women’s singles players of 2016
As another incredible season of badminton comes to an end, it is time to look back at the best performers of 2016. There were many surprises in store and quite a few changes took place at the top of the women’s singles game.
India’s Saina Nehwal was laid low by a knee surgery but the season saw the phenomenal rise of PV Sindhu as she blossomed into a worthy contender for the top titles. The dominance of the established Chinese giants may have ceased, but they have already found a new brigade of stars who are eager to take the sport forward.
Here are the five best women’s singles players of 2016:
#1 Tai Tzu Ying (Chinese Taipei)
Endowed with finesse and guile, Tai Tzu Ying is the Martina Hingis of the badminton world. Her deceptions have long proved to be deadly and have toppled even the tallest stars of the game. That was thoroughly vindicated when a 16-year-old Tai went on to become the youngest No. 1 in Taiwan’s badminton history in 2010.
However, consistency had been her Achilles Heel which she changed in 2016. The Taiwan-born player finally came into her own this season, winning the Indonesia Open Superseries Premier and the Chinese Taipei Open before the Olympics.
At Rio, she failed to build on the momentum and slumped to a straight-games defeat to India’s PV Sindhu in the pre-quarter-finals. But the way she bounced back from it was admirable, and she went on to take the World No. 1 ranking. She reached the final of the Denmark Open Superseries Premier, the semi-finals of the China Open Superseries Premier which culminated into her second titles at both Hong Kong Open Superseries and the prestigious World Superseries Finals.