Gilmour, Hall and MacPherson into Barcelona quarter-finals

Adam Hall and Julie MacPherson scored a superb win at the Barcelona Masters today, beating Robin Tabeling and Cheryl Seinen of the Netherlands to reach the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles.

And later in the afternoon Kirsty Gilmour joined them after the women’s singles sixth seed beat Mette Poulsen 21-15 19-21 21-14, extending her winning run over the former European bronze medallist from Denmark to six victories and setting up a quarter-final tie against Sayaka Takahashi in the process.

Hall and MacPherson fought back from a slow start to turn around a 21-7 deficit in the first game, winning the next two games 21-19 21-16 to secure victory and speaking afterwards, Hall said:

“We’re really happy to grind out the win today. The first set was probably down to a bit of nerves and getting used to each other again since we haven’t played in over three years.

“Then once we relaxed a bit and got into our groove we managed to control the game a bit better.”

Tomorrow they will face Danish fourth seeds Niclas Nohr and Sara Thygesen in the quarter finals which gives Hall the chance to avenge his first round loss in the men’s doubles.

“It’s going to be tough in the next round playing former European silver medalists and super series semi-finalists” said Hall, “but we’re going to give it a good shot, there’s no pressure on us.

“Playing him [Nohr] in the doubles will give us a bit of insight into his mixed game. It also helps that they are an established pair so will be easy to watch videos of their matches which won’t be as easy for them.”

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