Last call for Camilla BIRMINGHAM (England) March 9 - Camilla Martin, the only European ever to have challenged China's women's badminton singles dominance, plays her last All-England Open at the UK's national indoor arena this week (March 10-14). The 29-year-old Dane will be trying to regain the sport's oldest and most famous open title before quitting a famous 13-year career soon after the Olympic Games at Athens in August. ``Her great strength has been that she has always found a way to improve and has kept developing all the time,'' said Denmark's national coach, Steen Pedersen. ``Camilla's been our greatest woman player.'' The departure 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 '99 world title in her adopted home city of Copenhagen by beating the gallant Dai Yun in one of the most dramatic and controversial finals of all. ``I can't see who is going to follow me,'' Martin added. ``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 ranking from its current level of world number six, to a top four place which would make better platform from which challenge for an Olympic medal. The five-day event 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 per 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. Lin is the favourite for the All-England title but could have a difficult semi-final with Wong Choon Hann, the world runner-up from Malaysia. Chen, with his exciting airborne attacks, will be a popular and dangerous third seed, and may face the fifth-seeded Xia, though the world champion has a likely quarter-final with Lee-Hyun-Il, the second-seeded Korean who won last month's Olympic test event in Athens. The Chinese also possess the defending All-England champions in the women's and mixed doubles, Gao Ling partnering Huang Sui in the women's and Zhang Jun in the mixed, with a real possibility of achieving four of the five titles. But possibly more important to the Chinese is that they should get players into Olympic medal-winning positions in the seedings of all five events Their least strong event is the men's doubles, in which the Indonesians Sigit Budiarto and Candra Wijaya are the All-England titleholders, though the most vulnerable looking title defender is neither a Chinese nor a doubles player but the men's singles champion from Malaysia, Muhammad Hafiz Hashim. Hafiz became one of the most surprising All-England winners of all time when he triumphed as an unseeded player against the top-seeded titleholder Chen Hong last year, but now he is in danger of not making it to Athens. The champion also has a desperately difficult draw - a potential second round with his compatriot Wong Choon Hann, the world silver medallist. Both Hafiz's elder brother Muhammad Roslin Hashim and Wong are ranked above him, and Hafiz is currently languishing outside the top 20. 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 with Gong Ruina the favourite. ``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
