Fuzhou: Women’s singles No. 1 seed Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan had to retire from the women’s singles semi-final match against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan midway through the third set on Saturday.
Tai, who registered a career 6-4 advantage over Okuhara prior to Saturday’s semi-final, won the first set 21-19 before losing the second 12-21.
She decided to withdraw after the mid-game interval in the third set with Okuhara leading at 11-6.
“I have injured my knee since French Open, and I am not in my best condition right now,” said Tai.
“I need more rest. After French Open, I only had 1 week of rest before coming here. I felt a lot of pain I am worried my injury was actually aggravated by competing continuously,” added Tai.
Due to the injury, Tai has withdrawn from next week’s Hong Kong Open.
Okuhara will play home shuttler Chen Yufei in the final.
The hosts will be assured of a gold in mixed doubles when No. 1 seeds Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong set up an all-Chinese final against No. 2 seeds Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping.
Meanwhile, Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan of Korea are on course to defend their Fuzhou China Open women’s doubles title over No. 2 seeds Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota of Japan on Sunday.
