National squash player Chan Yiwen (pic) has withdrawn from the Indian Tour which begins in Mumbai today.

Yiwen was called away from the SEA Games when her father died two weeks ago and has not trained since.

She featured in the individual events in the Philippines and lost to teammate Rachel Arnold in the women’s singles final on Dec 2.

At midnight later, she received the news that her 57-year-old father Chan Thean Poay, a businessman, had died after a heart attack.

She returned to Penang and did not feature in the event where Malaysia won gold by beating Singapore 3-0 in the final.

The 19-year-old Yiwen said she was missing her dad, who was her number one fan.

“He knew I won the silver in the individual but he did not reply to my message. Then, I received the news that he passed away at midnight,” said Yiwen.

Yiwen said she had to skip the Indian Tour as she was not prepared for it.

“I will only return to training this week at Bukit Jalil and my first tournament next year will be the Indian Tour in Jaipur (from Jan 30- Feb 2).

“I completed my A-Level examinations last month and I will focus more on PSA (Professional Squash Association) tournaments next year. I had inconsistent performances this year but I hope to perform better next year,” said Yiwen, who is ranked 93rd in the world.

She is expected to play at least two PSA tournaments every month next year with the hope of improving her rankings.

“I need to do well in small tournaments to gain confidence to perform better in bigger tournaments,” said Yiwen, who won the SRAM (Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia) PSA No.1 tournament in April.

She also wants to feature in the Asian Team Championships in Bukit Jalil from March 25-29.

Yiwen will face a strong challenge from four other national women’s players to be in the Asian team. The others are national No. 1 Low Wee Wern, S. Sivasangari, Rachel Arnold and Aifa Azman.