Christie guaranteed European bronze

Fiona Christie reached the semi-finals of the wheelchair women’s singles today, guaranteeing that she will return from her last European Championships with at least a bronze medal.

Christie beat Spaniard Esther Torres 21-16 24-22 to reach the semi-finals and now plays Turkey’s Narin Uluc for a place in the final and a shot at the gold medal in her last ever European Championships.

But her mixed doubles campaign was ended by top seeds Young-Chin Mi and Valeska Knoblauch of Germany.

In the SL3-SL4 men’s doubles, Colin Leslie and England’s Anthony Forster upset the seeding when they beat Alan Oliver and Swede Rickard Nilsson, the joint 3/4 seeds, in the men’s doubles last night.

But two wins for both pairs today ensured they both progressed to the knockout stages, Leslie and Forster as group winners and Oliver and Nilsson as group runners-up.

But the prospect of another battle between Leslie and Oliver was extinguished when Oliver lost 21-10 21-13 to Ukraine’s Oleksandr Chyrkov, who will now face Leslie in tonight’s SL3 men’s singles quarter-finals.

Bobby Laing and Ireland’s Andrew Moorcroft lost 21-6 21-8 to Krysten Coombs and Jack Shephard in the SS6 men’s doubles last night but beat Serbian pair Milan Grahovac and Djordje Koprivica today to leave themselves with a chance of a bronze medal.

But Deidre Nagle’s European women’s singles campaign came to an end when she lost to Rebecca Bedford.

Nagle and Poland’s Maria Bartusz were defeated by top seeds Rebecca Bedford and Rachel Choong in the SS6 women’s doubles and have only one match left to play, against Daria Bujnicka and Oliwia Szmigiel of Poland.

It was a difficult day at the Hungarian International. Jack MacGregor and Ciar Pringle lost their men’s doubles match against Mathias Moldt Baskjaer and Andreas Sondergaard of Denmark 21-16 21-19 and Holly Newall lost 21-19 21-9 to India’s Shikha Gautum in the women’s singles.

That left Eleanor O’Donnell and Ciara Torrance as Scotland’s sole representatives when they beat Emilie Aalestrup and Cille Nielsen 21-17 23-21 in the women’s doubles to set up a clash with Balgian fourth seeds Lise Jaques and Flore Vandenhouke this evening.

Draws, schedules and results from France here and from Hungary here