# Cough could derail her hopes of retaining her title
By Rizal Abdullah
A coughing Carolina Marin, the defending champion, cut short her sparring session with Malaysia’s Tee Jing Yi during Tuesday’s training session but the Spaniard has no plans to pull out from the Celcom Axiata Malaysia Open SuperSeries Premier.
She is not going to surrender her title although Marin is certainly not in best of shape and condition.Â
Despite the disturbing cough Marin stayed on court to test the “court conditions and environment” at the Malawati Stadium in Shah Alam – the venue for the USD550,000 tournament.
The cough also forced Marin – a two-time world champion – to pullout from last week’s Yonex Sunrise India Open SuperSeries in New Delhi.
It has been a rather poor start to the year for Marin who also leads in the chase for the Rio Olympics in August. She failed to retain her All-England title in March when she was beaten 11-21, 21-16, 21-10 in the semi-finals by eventual champion Nozomi Okuhara.
“I am sick. I am not in the best of shape. My health is not good and this bad cough has not made things any easier for me, This persistent cough also forced me to pullout from the India Open,” said Marin who plays Hong Kong’s Yip Pui Yin in the first round on Wednesday.
Marin is also not too happy with the court conditions.
“It is quite windy and the flight of the shuttle is tricky,” added Marin who is a first timer at the Malawati Stadium.Â
Marin, the current World No 1, is also down to play in next week’s Singapore Open SuperSeries.Â
