Injury forces Saralee into retirement

Saralee Thoungthongkam of Thailand has had to call time on a long, illustrious badminton career after she suffered an injury to her anterior cruciate ligament at the Thailand Masters this week, according to a report today from Sport NOW.  The 36-year-old former world #1 withdrew prior to her quarter-final mixed doubles match against Hong Kong’s Lee/Chau.  She and longtime partner Sudket Prapakamol had taken a six-month break last year following a long match against that same Hong Kong pair but were only a few victories away from moving into contention for one of the 16 tickets for the Rio Olympics when the disaster struck this week.

Sudket and Saralee won the gold medal at the 2003 SEA Games and were crowned Asian Champions in 2005.  They won two Superseries titles but Saralee’s biggest win at home came in 2012, when she and 16-year-old Narissapat Lam won the Thailand Open women’s doubles title.