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.
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