Gregoria Mariska Faces Left Knee Problem Ahead Of Performing China Open 2023

Women's singles badminton player Gregoria Mariska Tunjung when appearing at the 2023 World Championships in Denmark/PBSI

JAKARTA - Women's singles Gregoria Mariska Tunjung experienced problems in the left knee ahead of the China Open which will take place from 5 to 10 September 2023.

PBSI women's singles coach, Indra Widjaja, said that the problem had been felt by the 2017 junior world champion before appearing at the 2023 World Championships in Denmark, last week.

"During the match at the World Championships, Gregoria actually had problems. He felt uncomfortable with his left knee. As a result, there were some movements that were not optimally seen in the field," said Indra in an official statement from PBSI.

While in Denmark, Gregoria was able to overcome the problem and stepped into the quarter-finals. He then lost in the round against the Japanese women's singles, Akane Yamaguchi.

Indra assessed that reaching the quarter-finals was a good result for Gregoria. However, he must immediately undergo recovery in order to be more optimal when playing in China later.

"In the time lag before going to the China Open, he must first focus on recovering his left knee. Before going to China, he can recover. As long as he is not injured. I'm not worried about his technique and physics," he said.

If you look at the draw at BWF, Gregoria will compete in the Super 1000 BWF event as the eighth seed. She will face Vietnam's women's singles Thuy Linh Nguyen in the first round.

Apart from Gregoria, another Indonesian representative who will compete in the women's singles is Putri Kusuma Wardani. Putri immediately got a tough opponent to meet the second seed from Japan, Akane Yamaguchi.

Prior to that, Putri also played at the World Championships in Denmark yesterday. Unfortunately, his journey stopped in the second half after losing to He Bing Jiao.

"Putri KW looked encouraging and showed progress when she met He Bing Jiao (China). She was able to play rubber games with a fairly tight score," said Indra.