Following injury, former Olympic champion Li Xuerui eyes Tokyo 2020

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Ace Chinese shuttler and former Olympic champion Li Xuerui has set her eyes on the podium at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The gold medal winner at the 2012 London Olympics is on a comeback trail after missing the majority of the international badminton tournaments for almost two years due to an injury.

Li is currently taking part at the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships in the north Indian city of Lucknow, where a slew of top Indian players such as former world number one and a bronze medalist of the London Games, Saina Nehwal, are also in action.

In an interview to leading Indian English daily Hindustan Times, Li said, “I was out of action for almost 600 days due to injury but for me now the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is the ultimate mission.”

The leading Chinese badminton star and former world no. 1, who edged past her compatriot Wang Yihan in the final at the 2012 London Olympics, stormed into the quarterfinal after crushing India's Shreyanshi Pardesi in straight games on Thursday.

Li Xuerui in action during this year's Uber Cup, in May 2018. /VCG Photo

“I was away from the game but I never lost my focus. I kept myself updated about what was happening in the badminton world and was trying hard to recover from my injuries. My family, friends and, above all, my coach kept motivating me for a comeback,” she mentioned while talking to the newspaper with the help of an interpreter.

Her hopes of winning a second straight Olympic gold medal was shattered at the 2016 Rio Olympics when an injured Li went down fighting against eventual gold medalist Caroline Marin of Spain in the semifinal. The injury on her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and lateral meniscus also forced her to forfeit the bronze medal match against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan.

After her tragic campaign in Rio, Li wrote on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like social network, that fans didn't need to worry about her. However her recovery took much longer as she was sidelined for one year due to the injury.

Li Xuerui (R) standing at the podium with the gold medal and flanked by her compatriot Wang Yihan (L), the silver medalist, after the women's badminton singles final at the 2012 London Olympic Games. /VCG Photo

Although she returned to the court in August 2017 to play at China's 13th National Games in Tianjin, she could only play doubles as she had not fully recovered by then. It was at the BWF Tour's Lingshui China Masters in April 2018 where she made a comeback to international competition after being out of action for almost 600 days.

Since then the two-time World Championship runner-up has won three titles – China Masters, U.S. Open and Canada Open – so far this year. With less than two years left for the next Olympic Games, a confident Li seems to be leaving no stone unturned to climb the summit of world badminton once again.

“The current structure and situation of world women's singles is different. When facing top shuttlers from other teams, my younger teammates lack confidence and aggression, and always lose key points at key moments...I hope we can unite and fight together,” Xinhua quoted Li saying on her return earlier this year.

With Wang Yihan and Wang Shixian hanging up their rackets from international competition after the Rio Olympics and Li being sidelined due to injury, Chinese women's badminton has been undergoing a rough patch in singles at the international level.

Chinese youngsters Chen Yufei is currently ranked 4th while another promising player He Bingjiao is currently 7th in the latest rankings and both of them haven't made it to the top three in the world rankings to date. Thus, Li's comeback is expected give a massive boost to Chinese women's badminton.