New Delhi: Rio Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin, ranked 10th, has withdrawn from the upcoming BWF World Championships after failing to recover completely from a knee injury she suffered during the Indonesia Masters final in January earlier this year. This would be a boost for ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu, who is ranked fifth in the world.
Marin has been one of the toughest opponents of Sindhu in recent years with Spaniard winning on eight occasions while the Indian managed to down her compatriot six times in the 14 encounters so far.
Defending champion Marin had ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee while competing in the Indonesian Masters final January 26 and has since been sidelined from competition.
She underwent knee surgery January 29 and had accepted the initial invitation to play in the World Championships to be held in Basel from August 19-25.
However, the Spaniard has now said she would not be able to participate in the event. “Me and my team has decided that we aren’t going to play the World Championship because we are very short of time. The recovery is going well and the knee is running well. So we will wait till the tournaments of September,” she said in a video message on Twitter Sunday.
Marin would be replaced by Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol in the tournament. Meanwhile, Indian shuttler H.S. Prannoy received a late call for the tournament following withdrawals by former world champion Viktor Axelsen and China’s Shi Yuqi.
Kidambi Srikanth, Sameer Verma and B. Sai Praneeth are the other three Indians who will be participating in the men’s singles event at the championships.