Lee Chong Wei pulls out of French Open due to injury

Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia plays against Brice Leverdez of France during their men's singles match in the Yonex Denmark Open badminton tournament in Odense, Denmark, October 21, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

PARIS - World No 1 badminton player Lee Chong Wei withdrew from the ongoing French Open on Wednesday due to a hamstring muscle injury.

The 34-year-old Malaysian shuttler was initially scheduled to play Chinese Taipei's Hsu Jen Hao in the first round of the men's singles event in the evening.

Lee, who's expected to defend his title in Paris, picked up the injury at last week's Denmark Open where the three-time Olympic silver medalist crashed out in the quarterfinals after losing to France's Brice Leverdez.

Hendrawan, the men's singles coach of Malaysian national team, thought it was the right decision with three tournaments remaining this year, namely China Open, Hong Kong Open and World Superseries Final in Dubai.

"We had already discussed about this on Tuesday but decided to wait and see how Chong Wei was coping today," said the coach. "He was already having difficulties moving due to the injury and so we decided to pull him out."

"There is no point in pushing him to play as that could make things worst. He still has three more tournaments to go, it's best he focuses on them," he added.

As the 10th stop of the 2016 World Superseries and the fourth after the Rio Olympic Games, the $300,000 French Open features world No 4 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the men's singles draw, missing highly-ranked Chinese duo Chen Long and Lin Dan.