KUALA LUMPUR: Despite traveling thousands of kilometres to Kuala Lumpur, two-time former world champion Kento Momota of Japan will unfortunately not participate in the Super 1000 Malaysia Open that kicks off at the Axiata Arena on Tuesday.
Due to a significant drop in form, world No. 38 Momota missed out on the tournament proper, as only one men's singles player, Indonesia's Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo, withdrew from the competition.
This was confirmed at the team managers' meeting on Monday.
Chico will be replaced by Taiwan's Lee Chia Hao, who was No. 1 on the original reserves list, one spot above Momota.
World No. 33 Chia Hao will play China's Li Shi Feng in the first round on Wednesday.
In the women's singles event, several top players, including three-time world champion Carolina Marin of Spain, South Korea's Kim Ga Eun, Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong, and Japan's Nozomi Okuhara, also pulled out of the tournament.
In the women's doubles, fans won't get to see Indonesia's Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti and Thailand's Jonkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai in action.
Malaysia's women's doubles duo, Go Pei Kee-Low Yeen Yuan, have been promoted to the main draw and will take on fifth seeds Zhang Shu Xian-Zheng Yu of China in the first round.
Meanwhile, in the mixed doubles, Denmark's Mathias Christiansen-Alexandra Boje are also out.