They can't raise my game

There were doubts over Gu Juan's future when her mentor and national coach, Luan Ching, was removed by the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) in January.

Yesterday, the SBA confirmed that the shuttler, who turns 24 later this month, has quit.

The announcement came as the association announced the squads for the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup in India later this month.

The statement said that Gu Juan had tendered her resignation on April 30, citing nagging injuries and a desire to look after her aged parents as reasons for her departure.

She also expressed her reluctance to train under the current system, which is overseen by national head coach Liu Qingdong, claiming "they are unable to bring me to the next level".

SBA chief executive officer Ronnie Lim said: "Gu Juan had expressed her desire to resign earlier this year and we have tried to encourage her to stay and give the new coaching system a chance, but she was reluctant.

INJURIES

"She was also carrying injuries and skipped several training sessions.

"Hence, we thought it was better for all parties to let her go."

While she reached a career-high world-ranking of 15 under Luan Ching, Gu Juan never won a senior title in her career.

Over the last few years, she has been dogged by knee injuries.

In the statement, national coach Liu expressed regret at her departure and believed she could have scored breakthroughs under him in the future.

Doubles shuttler Fu Mingtian, who won the women's singles gold at the 2011 South-east Asia Games - the first by a Singaporean - will probably take on an additional role at the Uber Cup.

"Our priority will be the Uber Cup and we have communicated with her (Fu) about taking up an additional role, the third singles, in the competition," said Liu.

"We will prepare her for this role in the next two weeks... and monitor her progress and suitability, thereafter."

The Thomas and Uber Cup Finals will be held in New Delhi from May 18-25. This year marks the first time Singapore have qualified for both competitions.

Women's doubles player, Vanessa Neo, said: "With the recent performances of our local shuttlers, we are confident that we can give the other teams a run for their money."

S’pore squads

THOMAS CUP:

• Derek Wong, Huang Chao, Terry Hee, Chayut Triyachat, Danny Bawa Chrisnanta, Sean Lee

UBER CUP:

• Chen Jia Yuan, Liang Xiaoyu, Vanessa Neo, Fu Mingtian, Yao Lei, Shinta Mulia Sari, Tan Wei Han.