Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen, the world’s third-ranked male badminton player, is to be among several highly ranked players appearing at this year’s Yonex Chinese Taipei Open, the biggest professional badminton tournament played in Taiwan.
Chou, who finished third in last year’s men’s singles after winning the title in 2016 and 2017, is looking to regain the title, saying that he would play for Taiwan and hopes to play his best in every match.
“I will make every effort to play well while maintaining the right attitude. It is also important to keep improving,” he said.
Chou scored one of the biggest victories of his career when he won the Blibli Indonesia Open, a top-tier BWF Super 1000 event, in the middle of last month, and a BWF Super 500 event in Thailand last week.
He would be a favorite to clinch the title this year in the Taipei event, a slightly lower-tier BWF Super 300 event being held on Sept. 3 to 8 at the Taipei Arena.
No other top 10 players are expected to play in the men’s singles, but Chou would still have to contend with world No. 12 Angus Ng of Hong Kong and world No. 17 and defending Yonex Chinese Taipei Open champion Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia.
About 442 shuttlers from 23 countries are to compete in five events for a total purse of US$500,000, the Chinese Taipei Badminton Association (CTBA) said in a statement.
One notable absence will be women’s world No. 2 Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan, the defending women’s singles champion.
CTBA president Will Chang said that the 25-year-old Tai wants to prepare herself for higher-level tournaments in the lead-up to next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games, which she has hinted might be her final outing as a professional.
Other highly ranked players who are expected to appear in Taipei are the eighth and ninth-ranked women’s singles players, Saina Nehwal of India and Beiwen Zhang of the US.
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