Marin and Tai to battle it out for supremacy
birmingham — Olympic champion Carolina Marin will battle top seed Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan as the Spaniard bids to reclaim her All-England Open badminton crown in Birmingham this week.
The 23-year-old became an improbable star by emerging from such a badminton backwater as Spain, and the gold medal she won in Rio last August was a priority to the exclusion of all else throughout 2016.
But Marin’s aims this year are entirely different. Her bid to regain the All-England Open title she lost five months before Rio will begin against Line Kjaersfeldt, the world number 23 from Denmark, on Wednesday.
“I didn’t win a Super Series last year, but it doesn’t matter - I won the most important event of all,” said Marin of her Rio success.
Though she still has the highest profile, Marin is not the number one seed. That is Tai, a gifted stroke-maker from Taiwan who won the World Super Series finals in December and became the year’s highest prize money winner with $271,025.
Much depends on how Marin feels physically.
The bustling left-hander endured recurring thigh strains and variable fitness during the later stages of 2016, and on Sunday she withdrew without contesting the German Open final in Mulheim.
This may merely have been a precaution, but it raises questions as to whether she really is fresher and better than at any time since her Games triumph, now nearly seven months ago.—