MacPherson and Newall are last Scots standing in Italy

Julie MacPherson and Holly Newall are the last Scots in contention at the Yonex Italian International being held in Milan this week.

Since re-forming as a partnership the pair have enjoyed some good results, culminating in winning the Welsh International at the beginning of December and they wasted no time in getting into their stride in Italy.

A comfortable 21-13 win in the first game was followed by a closer 21-19 win in game two to send the Scots through to a second round clash against Russian second seeds Anastasia Chervyakova and Olga Morozova on Friday evening.

Newall was also involved in women’s singles but went out at the qualifying stages yesterday when she lost 21-13 21-14 to Denmark’s Amalie Schulz, having won her opening tie against Italy’s Lidia Rainero.

Christopher Grimley also lost in the qualification rounds of the men’s singles as well as the men’s doubles along with his brother Matthew.

In today’s mixed doubles first round Matthew Grimley and Ciara Torrance put in a superb performance to push Russia’s Evgenij Dremin and Evgenia Dimova all the way before the top seeds eventually won 22-20 19-21 21-14.

Torrance also lost out in the women’s doubles when she and Eleanor O’Donnell were beaten 21-17 21-12 by Danes Sara Lundgaard and Rikke Soby.

Full results, draws and live scores are at www.tournamentsoftware.com

Live streaming from court 1 at www.youtube.com/user/BadmintonEuropeConf