BEIJING  -- China's Xie Xingfang was always a reluctant badminton player but presented with the chance to win an Olympic title on home soil, she is not going to waste her golden opportunity.

The 27-year-old world number one, one half of China's most famous sporting couple along with top ranked men's singles player Lin Dan, is hot favourite to wrest the Olympic crown away from compatriot and defending champion Zhang Ning.

Beijing will be Xie's first Olympics -- because of China's great strength in depth she was left out of the team for Athens as she was then ranked only fourth in China -- and is also likely to be her last.

"My goal is clear and simple, the gold medal in the women's singles," she recently told local media. "I know it is my last chance."

Xie was not always so motivated. When she was picked up by a Guangzhou city sports school coach at the age of 7, she showed little interest in badminton and skipped all the morning training sessions.

But her talent easily made Xie one of China's top prospects. After winning the doubles title at the world juniors with Zhang Jiewen in 1998, she was selected for the national team by coach Li Yongbo, who at once switched her to singles.

Feeling the pressure and lacking confidence, it took years for the long-time doubles player to get her first singles title at the Indonesian Open in 2003. In 2005 and 2006 she won the world titles.