World Championships down to 2 title defenders

The number of title defenses that will be mounted at next week’s BWF World Badminton Championships is down to two, following the withdrawal of 2013 men’s doubles champions Mohammad Ahsan / Hendra Setiawan.  The BWF issued a press release today saying that Ahsan had re-injured his back to the point that he has trouble even sitting and this had led to his withdrawal.  Meanwhile, Indonesian chances were further hurt as last-minute reserve call-up Simon Santoso had been forced to back out after contracting dengue fever.

The Indonesian contingent and the event itself had already suffered when the defending mixed doubles champions Tontowi Ahmad and Lilyana Natsir  pulled out a few weeks ago because of Ahmad’s nagging ankle injury.   With 2013 men’s singles winner Lin Dan failing to qualify this year, only Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon and two-time defending women’s doubles champions Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang will be back to defend their titles.  Ratchanok herself was hospitalized earlier this month with a bout of the flu.  Yu Yang, too, may seem somewhat questionable, having only played 3 tournaments in 2014; however, she reached the finals of all three of those, most recently at the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold in July.