Kuala Lumpur: The Rio Olympic women’s singles champion Carolina Marin of Spain made an announcement on Tuesday that she has withdrawn from next week’s 2017 World Superseries Finals in Dubai, and her vacated spot was filled by Sayaka Sato of Japan.
Marin was the second top women’s shuttler to pull out from the year-end championships, reigning World Champion Nozomi Okuhara also decided to skip the tournament due to a knee injury.
In her social media post, Marin cited that her withdrawal was due to a hip injury and vowed to remain upbeat and will come back stronger next season.
In men’s singles, Lee Chong Wei’s late-season triumph at the Hong Kong Open has helped him clinch a spot at the Dubai World Superseries Finals. Only top eight players and pairs in the singles or doubles categories could qualify for the tournament.
Here’s a list of qualifiers for the tournament:
Men’s Singles:
1. Son Wan-ho (South Korea)
2. Kidambi Srikanth (India)
3. Shi Yuqi (China)
4. Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia)
5. Chou Tien-chen (Chinese Taipei)
6. Angus Ng Ka Long (Hong Kong)
7. Chen Long (China)
8. Viktor Axelsen (Denmark)
Women’s Singles:
1. Akane Yamaguchi (Japan)
2. Tai Tzu-ying (Chinese Taipei)
3. Sung Ji-hyun (South Korea)
4. P. V. Sindhu (India)
5. Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand)
6. He Bingjiao (China)
7. Chen Yufei (China)
8. Sayaka Sato (Japan)
Men’s Doubles:
1. Marcus Fernaldi Gideon / Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (Indonesia)
2. Mathias Boe / Carsten Mogensen (Denmark)
3. Li Junhui / Liu Yuchen (China)
4. Liu Cheng / Zhang Nan (China)
5. Takeshi Kamura / Keigo Sonoda (Japan)
6. Mads Conrad-Petersen / Mads Pieler Kolding (Denmark)
7. Lee Jhe-huei / Lee Yang (Chinese Taipei)
8. Takuro Hoki / Yugo Kobayashi (Japan)
Women’s Doubles:
1. Shiho Tanaka / Koharu Yonemoto (Japan)
2. Yuki Fukushima / Sayaka Hirota (Japan)
3. Chen Qingchen / Jia Yifan (China)
4. Christinna Pedersen / Kamilla Rytter Juhl (Denmark)
5. Chang Ye-na / Lee So-hee (Chinese Taipei)
6. Jung Kyung-eun / Shin Seung-chan (South Korea)
7. Huang Yaqiong / Yu Xiaohan (China)
8. Hsu Ya-Ching / Wu Ti-jung (Chinese Taipei)
Mixed Doubles:
1. Zheng Siwei / Chen Qingchen (China)
2. Lu Kai / Huang Yaqiong (China)
3. Tontowi Ahmad / Liliyana Natsir (Indonesia)
4. Tang Chun Man / Tse Ying Suet (Hong Kong)
5. Praveen Jordan / Debby Susanto (Indonesia)
6. Chris Adcock / Gabrielle Adcock (England)
7. Tan Kian Meng / Lai Pei Jing (Malaysia)
8. Kenta Kazuno / Ayane Kurihara (Japan)