India, March 15 -- The record books will show that Tai Tzu Ying beat He Bing Jiao 16-21, 21-16, 22-20 in an hour and 15 minutes to win the quarter-final at the All England Open Badminton Championships on Friday. The score line of the third game tells you that it went right down to the wire too.

But what all these numbers and statistics won't tell you is that He played the final game with a 'partial tear' that would have made even moving around the court extremely painful. She didn't stop though, for that wouldn't be her.

Coming into the match, the sixth seed from China had a lopsided 4-16 head-to-head against the world No.3 but she started the match well, taking the first game 21-16.

Tai Tzu found her game in the second and jumped to a...