Gilmour beats former World Champion to reach Korean Open quarter-final

27 September 2018

Kirsty Gilmour scored one of the best wins of her career today, beating world no. 6 Ratchanok Intanon at the Victor Korea Open.

It was Gilmour’s first win in four meetings over the former World Champion and she was the better player throughout the match.

Not once did she surrender the lead to her Thai opponent, winning 21-18 21-17 in a dominant performance to follow-up yesterday’s hard-fought 20-22 21-14 21-11 victory over former Commonwealth Champion Michelle Li.

Speaking afterwards, Gilmour tried to put her finger on what had made the difference today compared to previous encounters.

“I think I just managed to get a hold of the conditions in the hall” she said.

“Ratchanok relies a lot on precision to the lines and she made a few errors on that today, so I knew if I kept my play controlled and concise I could be in with a shout.

“This is definitely up there with some of my best play so the fact that I’ve come out on top is a bonus.

“I only ever focus on my performance, not the outcome, but I’m happy to have strung these wins back to back.”

Gilmour’s run to the quarter-finals in Korea has helped to make up for a difficult couple of weeks during her tour of the Far East and she admitted support on social media had helped her to turn things around.

“Social media can either fill you with confidence or knock it. It’s a fine line” she said.

“I often post less during a tournament but I received some nice words last week and it definitely did help me refocus for this week.”

Gilmour faces sixth seed Beiwen Zhang in tomorrow’s quarter-final where she will be hopeful of causing another upset, having beaten her American counterpart during last year’s Indian Premier Badminton League campaign in their only previous encounter.

It will be the fourth match on court 2, with the session starting at 14.10hrs local time.

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