BIRMINGHAM: Denmark's Camilla Martin, the only European ever to have challenged China's women's badminton singles dominance, will be playing in her last All-England badminton tournament. The 29-year-old Martin will be trying to regain the sport's oldest and most famous Open title before bringing the curtains down on an illustrious 13-year career soon after the Olympic Games in Athens in August. Danish coach Steen Pedersen said: “Her great strength has been that she has always found a way to improve and has kept developing all the time. Camilla has been our greatest woman player.” The exit of Martin, who is also one of the longest-lasting players on the circuit, will leave a gap almost as harmful to the Asian women as to the Europeans. “The sport needs women from different parts of the world competing against each other for the big titles,” said Martin, who won the 1999 world title in Copenhagen by beating the China's Dai Yun in one of the most dramatic and controversial finals of all. “I can't see who is going to follow me. But I've done my bit and I can't worry about that any more. I have to focus on what's left of my career.” Her main concern, apart from trying to repeat her 2002 All-England triumph, is to raise her world ranking from number six to among the top four, which will put her in a better position in the challenge for Olympic honours. The five-day All-England offers a unique chance of doing this because it is the first time that both the entries at the Games and the seeds will be decided at the end of April. That makes this year's All-England arguably the most significant in its 106-year history. The leading two players of each country qualify unless a country has three in the top 16. And the Chinese have already gone a long way towards achieving what they need. They have the top three places in the women's singles – the defending champion Zhou Mi, the world champion Zhang Ning, and the top-seeded former world champion, Gong Ruina. They also have three in the top five in the men's singles – the number one, Lin Dan, and the former All-England champion Chen Hong as well as the reigning world champion Xia Xuanze. The Chinese also have the All-England defending champions in the women's and mixed doubles with Gao Ling partnering Huang Sui in the women's event and Zhang Jun in the mixed. There is a possibility that the Chinese will claim four of the five titles at stake in Birmingham. Their least strong event is the men's doubles in which Indonesians Sigit Budiarto and Candra Wijaya are the defending champions. But Sigit will be partnering Tri Kusharyanto this time while Candra will pair up with Halim Heryanto. Martin's chances of making the world's top four over the next five days, which would give her a better chance of waving goodbye from the podium in Athens, have not been helped by the draw, which has given her a potential quarter-final against favourite Ruina. “At this stage of her career motivation is very important and her motivation is peaking only a few times a year,” emphasised Pedersen. “The All-England is one of those times. Her set of tournament victories was much more complete after she won this one (two years ago) because this title still has a reputation. It's still big for the players.” – AFP
