Consider a knock-out women’s badminton singles tournament where there are no ties. The loser in each game is eliminated from the tournament. Every player plays until she is defeated or remains the last undefeated player. The last undefeated player is declared the winner of the tournament. If there are 64 players in the beginning of the tournament, how many games should be played in total to declare the winner of the tournament?

In a single-elimination (knock-out) tournament with no ties:

1. Each game produces exactly one loser, who is immediately eliminated from the tournament.

2. To determine a single champion from an initial pool of $N = 64$ players, exactly $N - 1 = 64 - 1 = 63$ players must be eliminated.

3. Since each match eliminates exactly one player, the total number of games required is:

Alternatively, calculating round-by-round:

• Round 1: $32$ games (leaves $32$ players)

• Round 2: $16$ games (leaves $16$ players)

• Round 3: $8$ games (leaves $8$ players)

• Round 4: $4$ games (leaves $4$ players)

• Semifinals: $2$ games (leaves $2$ players)

• Final: $1$ game (declares the winner)

Thus, (C) is the correct option.