Olympian Marin Sees Tai Tzu as Strongest Opponent in 2017 Indonesia Open
Jakarta. Badminton world number two and Olympic gold medalist Carolina Marin of Spain said she expects current number one Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan as her strongest opponent in the 2017 Indonesia Open, which takes place in Jakarta this week.
"Of course, I'll try to give my best and win this tournament," Marin told reporters during a mixed badminton-football event in the capital on Sunday (11/06).
Marin, 23, was defeated by China's Wang Yihan in rubber sets in the women's single semifinal during last year's tournament. She triumphed in the 2016 Rio Olympics two months later, beating India's Pusarla Venkata Sindhu in the final.
Marin's interest in badminton started when a friend forced her to play the sport at the age of 8. She started to train seriously at Spain's national high-performance center at the age of 14 and after eight years of hard training, she won the most coveted prize – Olympic gold.
"She's the world number two at the moment, so she has a good chance to win the Indonesia Open. There are four to six women who can actually win the tournament and she is one of them," Anders Thomssen, Marin's assistant coach, told the Jakarta Globe during the same event.
"I'm very confident that she can win, but she has a tough and young Chinese opponent in her first round; it'll be difficult," Thomssen added.
However, Marin admitted that her biggest opponent was neither from China, nor Indonesia or Taiwan.
"I really say my biggest opponent as myself. I know Tai Tzu is a very good performer now, but let's see what happens this week," she said.
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