Tokyo: Carolina Marin who won her second-straight World Championship in August, will start her quest for the Japan Open on Wednesday. She plays Japanese Yui Hashimoto who pulled off the upset over Marin by defeating the world champion in three-set at this year’s Indonesia Open.
Marin had previously held a 2-0 head-to-head record over Hashimoto prior to this year’s Indonesia Open.
When talking to media before her departure for Tokyo, the reigning world champion revealed that in order to do well in the 2016 Rio Olympics, she has been working with her coach Fernando Rivas to strategically and tactically tweak a few things in her game to increase her chances of winning a gold in Rio.
“Fernando is a very creative coach. He always introduces technical and tactical changes to my game,” said Marin. She also emphasized those little details and small changes could make all the difference in her matches.
“When I was playing with some new techniques at the Jakarta World Championships, I was able to catch my opponents off guard,” added Marin.
The No. 1 seed Marin would take on Wang Shixian China in the quarter-finals of Japan Open, and possibly the 2012 Olympics gold medalist Li Xuerui in the semi-finals. If Carolina Marin makes the final of the Japan Open, she faces a potential mouth-watering final clash against No. 2 seed Saina Nehwal of India.
