Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Monday announced her withdrawal from the Singapore Open, a day before the start of a tournament seen as crucial in earning Olympic ranking points.
The world No. 4 shuttler, who was seeded fourth in Singapore, wrote on social media that she needed more time to recover from an injury to her left knee that has been bothering her since November last year.
She had been trying to play through it to pick up more ranking points and improve her seeding for the Paris Olympics in late July.
Photo: AFP
Under Olympic rules, any of the qualified competitors in the women’s singles event who win the first spot in a group occupied by one of the top-three seeded players would directly advance to the quarter-finals.
With Olympic badminton seeding positions set to be fixed on July 9, Tai has been looking for chances to accumulate more ranking points, leaving her little time between competitions to return to Taiwan for treatment.
Tai has 1,515 points, behind world No. 3 Carolina Marin of Spain, with only six BWF events left for her to improve her ranking — including the one in Singapore, which Tai won in 2017 and 2019.
The Taiwanese had originally planned to compete in the Super 750-level Singapore Open from yesterday to Sunday and the Super 1000 Indonesia Open next week, but not any tournaments in Australia, the US or Canada.
Tai said that she and her team would evaluate her condition before deciding whether she would compete in the Indonesia Open.
The decision would be difficult, as Tai is only 264 points ahead of Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.
As much as she would want to win the third seed and a potential bye into the Olympic quarter-finals, Tai would probably not want to be seeded fifth.
The women’s singles division is dominated by five players, including Tai, and whoever is seeded fifth would have to face one of the top four in the quarter-finals, complicating that player’s road to a potential medal.
In yesterday’s opening round in Singapore, Taiwan’s Pai Yu-po, ranked 30th worldwide in women’s singles, beat Indonesia’s world No. 13 Supanida Katethong 14-21, 21-15, 21-15, while Taiwanese Hsu Wen-chi beat Canadian Zhang Wen-yu 21-16, 21-19.
In men’s singles, world No. 17 Taiwanese Lin Chun-yi beat Hong Kong’s world No. 22 Angus Ng Ka Long 21-13, 22-20.
In men’s doubles, Taiwan’s Lu Ching-yao and Yang Po-han lost 21-18, 21-13 to Indonesia’s Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin.
In women’s doubles, Taiwanese Chang Ching-hui and Yang Ching-tun beat Indian sisters Rutaparna and Swetaparna Panda 21-12, 12-21, 21-13, while Taiwan’s Hung Yi-ting and Lee Yu-hsuan lost 21-15, 20-22, 21-15 to Bulgarian sisters Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva.
In mixed doubles, the Taiwanese duo of Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin beat South Korea’s Ko Sung-hyun and Eom Hye-won 21-12, 17-21, 21-16, while the Taiwanese pairing of Chang Ko-chi and Lee Chih-chen lost 21-18, 17-21, 21-17 to Japan’s Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo. Taiwan’s Hsu Ya-ching and Lin Wan-ching lost 21-17, 22-20 to China’s Li Yijing and Luo Xumin.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
Manchester City have reached do-or-die territory in the UEFA Champions League earlier than expected ahead of what Pep Guardiola has described as a “final” against Club Brugge today. City have disproved the suggestion a new format to Europe’s top club competition would remove any jeopardy for the top clubs as Guardiola stares down the barrel of failing to make the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in his career. The English champions have endured a torrid season both in their English Premier League title defense and on the continent. A run of one win in 13 games, which included Champions League
FINAL WEEK LOOMS: PSG rose to 22nd place to set up another tense challenge against 24th-placed Stuttgart, while Man City require victory against Club Brugge Manchester City are on the brink of a humiliating UEFA Champions League exit after a stunning loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, while Real Madrid is no longer at risk after routing Salzburg. Man City blew a two-goal lead in a high-stakes clash of super-wealthy underachievers that PSG won 4-2 in Paris, who could still be eliminated alongside the English champions after the final round of games next week. Only the top 24 in the 36-team standings are to advance. Man City, the 2023 champions, are in 25th place, but could squeeze into the knockout playoffs round by beating Club Brugge. “We will
Things are somewhat out of control at the Australian Open this year, and that has only a little to do with the results on the courts. Yes, there were some upsets, including Madison Keys eliminating No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the women’s singles semi-finals on Thursday. It also was the first time since 1990 that three teenagers beat top-10 men’s seeds at a Grand Slam tennis tournament. The loser of one of those matches, Daniil Medvedev, got fined US$76,000 for behaving badly. Last year’s women’s singles runner-up exited in the first round. However, the real fuss is happening elsewhere. The rowdy fans, for one
RSS