Kuala Lumpur: Women’s singles World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan has withdrawn from the 2017 World Championships that will be held at Emirates Arena in Glasgow from Aug 21 to August 27, to focus on World University Games (Universiade) in Taipei that runs from August 19 to August 30.
“This year will be the first time the Universiade is being held in Taiwan. If I miss this, I will not get a chance to play in it in front of the home crowd anymore,” said Tai.
Tai Tzu Ying who is currently a third-year student at the National University of Taipei showed no remorse of skipping the World Championships.
“I won’t regret pulling out from the world meet as it is held every year,” added Tai.
Meanwhile, two-time women’s singles world champion Carolina Marin of Spain who emulated Chen Long’s feat of winning the men’s crown in 2014 and 2015 (both Marin and Chen Long also won the Rio Olympic gold medal) could potentially clash with Sung Ji Hyun of Korea in the semi-finals at the bottom half of the women’s singles draw.
Rio-Olympic silver-medalist PV Sindhu who won bronze at the 2013 and 2014 world meet, has been drawn in the top-half with Akane Yamaguchi and World No.9 Ratchanok Intanon who was the youngest player to ever won the world champion at the age of 18 in 2013.
