Tom Wolfenden out to ‘do some damage’ in 2020 after return from long-term injury

Tom Wolfenden has his sights set on doing some damage on the international badminton circuit next year after recovering from long-term injury.

May saw the 25-year-old shuttler suffer an horrific injury to his left foot and ankle, which left him with snapped ligaments, bone bruising and the need for surgery.

But six months later he returned to the competitive scene when he stepped back onto court alongside men’s doubles partner Callum Hemming at the Hungarian International Championships, where they made the quarter-finals.

Wolfenden has also since reunited with mixed doubles partner Jenny Moore, the duo making it into the last-eight of the Italian International earlier this month.

“I’m feeling good,” he said. “Obviously it takes time after you’ve been injured for a long time. I think I was injured for six months in total.

“It was a lot of hard work to get back and each day I just try and work hard and try and get my level back.

“I think I’m near enough back to where I was at before I got injured.

“It does take time, but we’ve got to keep enjoying it. Working hard and pushing forward.”

Such a long-term injury was new scenario for Wolfenden, who believes he will be well served for the experience, despite his time out.

“I’ve had a few little injuries, but nothing so severe,” he said. “It is difficult, you’re in the gym every day by yourself while everyone else is training, which is hard mentally.

“But it makes me stronger, so that’s definitely made me stronger and evolve me into a better player in the future.”

Wolfenden played only mixed doubles alongside Moore in Milan, where the duo reached their third quarter-final of a stop-start season.

When the circuit resumes in 2020, he remains confident they can make an impact.

“Hopefully, touch wood, no injuries; that would be nice,” Wolfenden said of his hopes for next year.

“We’ve just got to keep working hard as a partnership and we’re looking for good things next year.

“We know we can play a good level, we’ve beaten some good pairs when we first started our partnership.

“We’re looking to push on from that and do some damage on the tour.”

Kirsty Gilmour putting on personal pressure for thriving finish to Olympic qualification

Kirsty Gilmour is still putting on the personal pressure to provide a thriving final flourish to her Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifying campaign.

The 26-year-old, who made it to the 2016 Games in Rio, is currently in position as the 20th qualifier on the Badminton World Federation’s Race to Tokyo standings.

She’s also a full 30 spots up on next-best Briton, Jordan Hart of Wales, with England’s Chloe Birch third on the list.

With a little over four months to go until the qualification period closes in late April and Gilmour set to start 2020 playing at BWF World Tour events, on paper she appears well set to close out her place at the Games.

However, she is pushing herself not just to qualify for Tokyo, but get there as highly ranked as possible.

“I actually still do feel the pressure,” Gilmour said at the recent Italian International. “Whether that’s external pressure or pressure that I put on myself; probably the latter.

“I just want to qualify as best as possible. For Rio I was seeded 11th, so to get in and around the seedings would be really, really helpful.

“I better get a move on the start of next year to make that happen. It’s going to be a tough ask at this point I think, but anything is possible.”

And that pressure is precisely what Gilmour wants on her back as she believes that when the heat is turned up, it brings out her best.

“I think any time that I’ve actually been in a highly pressurised environment, the vast majority of times I’ve performed pretty well,” she added.

“Maybe I just put that on myself and have that all the time so when it’s intensified in an arena or in a final, or a medal match, then I know exactly how to cope with it.

“I’m looking forward to the big pressure moments, because we play so many tournaments it is hard to apply that pressure all the time.

“There are some tournaments you’re going to have to put less in because it’s on.

“My next one that will be pretty pressurised, the Indonesia [Masters] in the Istora Senayan is always a pretty special experience, so that will be pretty cool.

“But I guess the European Championships will be the next championships that we’ll play.”

The 2019 season has seen Gilmour finish runner-up at four events, the top of the podium remaining elusive before her campaign finished with a quarter-final run at the Italian International.

Putting inconsistencies behind her is Gilmour’s first aim for next year, with places around the world’s top 30 offering a greater chance of direct entry to the main draws at top-tier events.

“I really don’t feel like I’ve reached my top level this year, maybe once or twice I’ve kind of touched it,” she said.

“But I’ve really struggled to get any sort of consistency which has been pretty frustrating.

“But there have been a lot of silver medals, so I guess if you’re really looking at the stats it would be okay.

“I’ve dropped in the rankings if anything, I haven’t gone up and you’re always just looking to progress; you want constant progression.

“Sometimes that may be unrealistic, but it’s what every athlete wants.

“It’s been a bit of a disappointing year to be honest, but I’m still doing enough to stay in and around that top 30.”

Gilmour’s trip to Milan for the Italian International – squeezed in as “a little extra” in her own words – was the 19th event of a busy year.

A hard-earned break awaits before the new season’s tour begins in earnest in the Far East, followed by participation in the high-octane Premier Badminton League in India – for which she was snapped up for the equivalent of £835,000 by the Chennai Superstarz at the pre-season auction.

But it won’t be all mince pies and festive TV for the shuttler this holiday season.

“I’ve just had a text from my S&C coach saying that we’ve got a fitness test in on December 23, so can’t wait for that,” she said.

“But it’s going to be really nice to spend some time at home. I told everyone that I would be home for most of December and I have not been.

“It’s going to be really nice to spend Christmas with my family, because I’ve spent the last two Christmases in India with the PBL; it’s going to be really nice to be home this year.

“I’m going to skip Malaysia [Masters], but I’m going to go Indonesia, Thailand and directly into the PBL which is shifted back a bit this year.

“I’m going to play for the Chennai Superstarz – with a Z – this year, so a new team and I’m really excited, it looks pretty good.

“The first year I played must have been the end of 2017, and then end of last year. I’ve been part of the Bengaluru Blasters, last year was the Ahmedabad Smashers, and this year is the Superstarz.

“It’s nice to change up the teams, everyone gets mixed in, it’s a really cool experience.

“It’s a lot more fast and furious. It’s best of three games up to 15, so it’s pretty short and sharp, and it’s a lot of fun.”

When the PBL is done and dusted, Gilmour will be back in Europe to represent her country at the European Women’s Team Championship in France.

She said: “It’s nice, I’ve not travelled to some tournaments with a few people that are going to be on the team so it’ll be an interesting experience.

“I’m going to be the grandmother, there’s a bit of an age gap between me and the next person, but it’s always fun to play team events.”

PICTURE: Pierre-Yves Beaudouin/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0

Three titles and a remarkable points haul – but Carolina Marin says she is still not at her best after injury

Carolina Marin’s remarkable comeback from almost eight months out injured has seen her claim three titles and reach one more final.

And yet, despite being one of the world’s form players in women’s singles, Marin still says she does not feel 100 per cent.

The reigning Olympic gold medalist fell victim to a ruptured ACL in the final of the Indonesia Masters in January, and would miss over half the year’s on-court action, including the European and World Championships, and some of the biggest events on the BWF World Tour.

But on her second tournament back in September – after a first-round hiccup in Vietnam – the Spanish shuttler trumped three seeds en route to a stunning triumph at the Victor China Open Super 1,000 event.

A final at the French Open and victory at the Syed Modi International followed on the World Tour stage, before Marin rounded out her 2019 with an international challenge appearance in sweeping to the Italian International without dropping a game.

Since her comeback and before the World Tour Finals week, only three players have allotted more world ranking points than Marin – the globe’s top two in Tai Tzu Ying and Chen Yu Fei, plus Korean phenom An Se Young.

That sudden success has shocked even her, despite still feeling there is room to improve on court.

“Myself and all of my team, I think we are really surprised with my comeback after the injury,” Marin said.

“It was seven-and-half months, really tough, but I think we did really good work just to be back in at the best performance as I can.

“Otherwise I don’t feel I am 100 per cent yet, but I have to keep improving a lot. This tournament [the Italian International] I wanted to use for practice and to keep improving my game.

“Physically I feel really good, but I had to stop for four months and then the last three months was when I started to move on court and get my feeling again.

“I will be ready for the January tournaments.”

Those tournaments are set to begin with the Malaysia Masters on January 7, with little time for the Spaniard to take a break from her schedule.

The Italian International was the last event of Marin’s year – but immediately after picking the crown she was jetting off for more hard work.

“I’m leaving for Granada to practice in the altitude, so I don’t know when I will have some more holidays,” she said. “Maybe when I finish the tournaments in April after the Europeans.

“But I’m not sure because it depends on how it goes in the tournaments and the results.

“I am talking all the time with my team, because they organize the schedule for me for the next year, so we will see.”

Her win in Milan was a rare appearance at an international challenge level event, which came when she might otherwise have been playing in the World Tour Finals against her leading rivals in Guangzhou, China.

It proved a successful weekend in terms of her preparations and snagging important world ranking points with the Olympic qualification period coming to a close at the end of April, where she is also eager to bag a place as one of the seeds.

“I was here to play this tournament because I need to get the points for my world ranking,” said Marin.

“Otherwise I think the goal here this week was to win, so I feel happy of course.”

She added: “Now my focus is just to keep improving my game and be ready for the next tournament that I have in three weeks.

“I will play against the top level again – I want to play against them – and of course I will be ready for that.

“My main goal [for 2020] is just to qualify for the Olympic Games and be seeded.”

The victory in Milan was not Marin’s first. She was also a winner of the event in 2013, following a silver medal in 2010 and second place when the European Junior Championships were held at the Palabadminton in 2009.

Marin said: “I feel really happy to be here in Italy, because I have good memories from when I was young; ten years ago I won the silver medal in the European under-19s.

“It is a good memory, because I remember when I was young and how I played here.”

PICTURE: Tsportsasia

Smith questions BWF commitment demands as players struggle with schedule

Lauren Smith questioned BWF’s commitment requirements for top players following her first-round mixed doubles elimination alongside Marcus Ellis at the French Open.

The pair went into the Paris event as seventh seeds but lost out to German duo Mark Lamsfuss & Isabel Herttrich 21-17 21-15.

Asked if she and Ellis needed a break, Smith said it was “not really an option” owing to BWF’s rules.

For this year, the international federation requires the top 15 singles and top ten doubles pairs from the rankings after the 2018 World Tour Finals to compete in all three Super 1,000 tournaments, the five Super 750 events, and four of the seven Super 500 tournaments, plus the Tour Finals should they make it, in the following season.

For 2020, according to updated player commitment regulations, the world rankings from the third week of November will decide the so-called “top committed players”.

Any additional players in the top 15 or top ten brackets come the first Thursday of July are expected to make all remaining Super 1,000 and 750 events, plus three Super 500s this year and next.

That is the category Ellis & Smith find themselves in, which left them obligated to compete in at least nine Tour events over the second half of the season, with the World Championships also scheduled for August.

Like many of their rivals, they have also entered lower level tournaments with both the race to Guangzhou for the World Tour Finals and 2020 Olympic Games qualification now on the line.

Nevertheless, Smith feels the rules laid down by the BWF need looking into.

“I think a break would be great but it’s not really an option, a lot due to BWF demanding that we play certain tournaments,” she told Badminton Europe.

“We don’t really have a choice of ‘we’ll rest that one, we don’t want to do that one’.”

Ahead of and during the early days of the French Open alone, there has been a spate of additional injuries.

Mark Caljouw had to limp off court after retiring during the third game in his tie with Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu, while He Bingjao won out against Gregoria Mariska, but was also reportedly walking uncomfortably afterwards.

Ahead of the tournament, Chen Yufei, Du Yue and Sung Ji Hyun were also forced to withdraw late on following the previous week’s Denmark Open.

In the space of two months from the start of the VICTOR China Open on September 17 to the end of the Hong Kong Open on November 17, the calendar contains one Super 1,000 event, three Super 750s – including the Denmark and French Opens in consecutive weeks – and two Super 500 tournaments, plus the Macau Open, with two more Super 300 events to close out the season in late November.

Smith added: “You see the majority of the players here have got taping, they looked fatigued. Everyone’s struggling with the schedule.

“I think it’s something that needs to be considered in the future, that athletes need, whether that’s mental, physical, whatever.

“Everyone’s travelling back and forward through timezones and it’s going to take it out of people.

“But the honest solution at the moment is figuring out how to manage it, not just feeling sorry for ourselves and being like ‘I’m tired, I’m injured, my body’s not right’ and not training.

“It’s very easy to get into that pit and have a pitty party, the solution is to fight back harder.”