Carolina Marin to compete at All England in Birmingham

Fate dealt Olympic badminton champion Carolina Marin a tough hand last weekend. The Spanish ace had advanced to the final of the German Open with a semi-final victory over Japan's Minatsu Mitani, only to be forced to pull out of the title match because of a physical setback.

"I've had a flare-up of a problem I previously suffered after the Olympic Games and I won't be able to play tomorrow as a result," Marin revealed shortly after posting the following tweet:

It's been a difficult day: inspite of reaching the final I will not be able to play because a little injury #GermanGPG pic.twitter.com/4ADJrnG09N

— Carolina Marin (@caro_marin2) March 4, 2017

However, the Spaniard has now confirmed that she will be participating in this week's All England Open Badminton Championships, one of the biggest events of the season. With one eye on her top target for the campaign, the BWF Badminton World Championships, set to take place in Glasgow from 21 to 27 August, the 23-year-old will be looking to get that winning feeling again by triumphing in Birmingham for the second time, having previously tasted All England glory in 2015.

Over in Germany, Marin, the top seed, once again proved that she is blessed with not just an abundance of talent, but also an extraordinary competitive streak. After battling through the first round, she then cruised into the quarter-finals by crushing Indonesian youngster Priskila Siahaya 21-15, 21-8. The Spanish shuttler subsequently had to call on all her skill and mettle to overcome Sayaka Sato 21-17, 17-21, 21-13 in the quarter-finals before defeating Mitani 21-10, 17-21, 21-18 in a semi-final thriller, only for injury to cruelly deny her the chance to face another Japanese star, Akane Yamaguchi, for the title.