BADMINTON/Tai Tzu-ying withdraws from 2024 Singapore Open

Taipei, May 27 (CNA) Taiwan badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) on Monday announced her withdrawal from the 2024 Singapore Open, one day before the event's scheduled start.

The world No. 4 shuttler said over her social media that she needed more time to recover from an injury to her left knee that has been bothering her since last November.

She had been trying to play through it to pick up more ranking points and improve her seeding at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics in late July.

According to current Olympic rules, the 39 verified shuttlers for the women's singles event will compete against one another after being divided into 13 groups.

Any player who takes the first spot in a group occupied by one of the top-three seeded shuttlers will be allowed to directly advance to the quarterfinals.

With the Olympic badminton seeding positions scheduled to be fixed on July 9, Tai has been looking for chances to accumulate more ranking points since November, leaving her little time between competitions to return to Taiwan for treatment.

Presently, Tai is 1,515 points behind current world No. 3 Carolina Marin of Spain, with only six Badminton World Federation events, including the one in Singapore, left for her to improve her ranking.

Tai had originally planned to compete in both the Super 750-level Singapore Open from May 28 to June 2 and the Super 1000 Indonesia Open June 4 to 9, but not events in Australia, United States or Canada.

However, Tai has now announced she will not participate in the Singapore event which she won in 2017 and 2019.

As for the Indonesia Open, Tai told CNA that she and her team will evaluate her condition before deciding whether she intends to participate.

The decision will be difficult because Tai is only 264 points ahead of Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.

As much as getting the third seed and a potential bye into the Olympic quarterfinals, Tai would probably not want to be seeded fifth.

The women's singles division is currently dominated by five players, including Tai, and whoever is seeded fifth would have to face one of the top four in the quarterfinals, complicating that player's road to a potential medal.