KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — Three-time world and former Olympic champion Carolina Marin is not at her best form yet as she continues to recover from her knee surgery, but is on track to return as a dominant force in women’s badminton again.
The ongoing 2022 Malaysia Open is only the Spaniard's fourth tournament since her triumphant return to court by winning her sixth European Championships in April after missing close to a year of competitive action.
Currently ranked fifth in the world, the 29-year-old took only 42 minutes to eliminate world number 45 Qi Xuefei of France 21 - 7, 21 - 16 in the women’s singles opening round at Axiata Arena today.
Speaking to the reporters after the match, Marin was delighted with her performance, especially the improvements in terms of ‘on-court feel’ and movements.
“It is tough when you suffer two serious injuries to your knee, I am not at my 100 per cent yet, but this is part of the game.
“I need to accept, I need to do what I can do my best and try to keep going, keep improving my movement, how I feel on the court, my confidence and stroke that I have been practising on the court back home,” she said.
Marin, who was the first European woman to win an Olympic gold in badminton at the 2016 Rio Games, had to forgo defending her gold medal defence after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on her left knee about a month before the Olympic Games.
She suffered a similar injury to her right knee during the 2019 Indonesia Masters final, and she took eight months to recover, winning six Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour titles since then.
However, Marin is not in any rush and intends to take a step-by-step approach to getting back to top-level performance.
“Today’s performance was much better than two weeks ago in the Indonesia Open, so I need to keep going. However, this stadium is a bit difficult because you need to have very good control of the shuttle with the drift, I just do my best.
“It is always good to have spectators in the stadium, I really miss it.… But first of all, I really miss playing tournaments, then when you have an amazing crowd, everyone shouting for you when you get into the court, something is special even when you couldn’t play for a year, special moments,” she said about the atmosphere in the stadium.
Marin will face Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark, who defeated Indonesian Putri Kusuma Wardani 21 - 14, 10 - 21, 21 - 16, in the second round.
— Bernama
