Olympic gold medalists Wang Chi-lin and Lee Yang depart today for Bali, Indonesia, to compete in the three-tournament Indonesia Badminton Festival, looking to regain the form that carried them to victory for Taiwan at the Summer Games in Tokyo.
On Tuesday next week, the third-seeded men’s doubles duo are to face world No. 44 Yoshinori Takeuchi and Keiichiro Matsui of Japan in the first round of the Super 750 Indonesia Masters, which offers prize money of US$600,000.
Wang and Lee are also seeded third as the festival continues with the Super 1000 Indonesia Open, which opens on Nov. 23 with a US$850,000 purse. The BWF World Tour Finals, the last tournament of the festival, opens on Dec. 1 with a purse of US$1.5 million.
Photo: Reuters
The duo won Taiwan’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in badminton in Tokyo, but Lee told the Central News Agency on Monday that he had sustained a lower-back injury at the Tokyo Games and had limited his tournament appearances since then to keep it in check.
The pair chose to represent Taiwan at the Thomas Cup in Denmark in the middle of last month and then competed in the Denmark Open the following week, because the events were in the same country, but they quickly returned to Taiwan to prevent his injury worsening, Lee said.
Lee said that competing in back-to-back tournaments and following disease prevention measures “definitely affects the rhythm of training.”
However, there is no other choice, he added.
“We have to protect ourselves and others. At this difficult time, we will do our best to prepare for each match,” Lee told reporters.
The duo won all three of their group matches at the Thomas Cup, even though Taiwan failed to advance out of the group stage, but they were ousted in the second round of the Denmark Open by eventual winners Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan.
To advance to the top in Indonesia, Wang and Lee might need to face the two top-seeded Indonesia teams, which they defeated under pressure-packed conditions at the Olympics, as well as the in-form pairing of Hoki and Kobayashi.
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
HEATED RIVALRY: The pair had met 14 times previously, with Sabalenka winning eight of the encounters and entering the final as the favorite to take the title Elena Rybakina took revenge over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win a nail-biting Australian Open final yesterday and clinch her second Grand Slam title. The big-serving Kazakh fifth seed held her nerve to pull through 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2 hours, 18 minutes. It was payback after the Belarusian Sabalenka won the 2023 final between two of the hardest hitters in women’s tennis. The ice-cool Rybakina, 26, who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022. It was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open
Denver superstar Nikola Jokic returned from a 16-game injury absence to post a 31-point, 12-rebound double-double on Friday and propel the Nuggets to a 122-109 NBA victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic had not played since suffering a bone bruise in the left knee he hyperextended in a game against Miami on Dec. 29 last year. The Serbian big man did not miss a beat. He led all scorers, connecting on eight of 11 shots from the field, and also handed out five assists with three steals while playing just 24 minutes, 32 seconds as the
BATTERED AND BRUISED: Alcaraz suffered a cramp in the third set, but was allowed treatment despite Zverev’s protests, and continued on to win in five-and-a-half hours An ailing Carlos Alcaraz battled past Alexander Zverev yesterday in five epic sets to reach his first Australian Open final and move within a match of becoming the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. The world No. 1 outlasted the German third seed 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 over a titanic 5 hours, 27 minutes in hot conditions to head to tomorrow’s title match. He only narrowly avoided crashing out after a huge fright at 4-4 in the third set when he pulled up in pain with what appeared to be cramp. He was allowed to have treatment
RSS