Another good day for Scotland in Tallinn
Scotland’s next generation of stars continued their good form today at the European Junior Championships in Estonia.
Adam Pringle and Rachel Andrew beat Austria’s Nicolas Rudolph and Serena Au Yeong 21-19 21-19 to progress to the third round where they will face English fifth seeds Ethan Van Leeuwen and Sian Kelly.
But Joshua Apiliga and Sarah Sidebottom will not be joining them in round three, having lost to Georgii Karpov and Anastasia Kurdyukova, Russia’s sixth seeds, 21-13 21-9.
Apiliga returned to the court later in the day in the men’s singles, recovering from a slow start to beat Czech player Jin Kral 16-21 21-10 21-13 while No.4 seed Christopher Grimley had an easy day, benefitting from a walkover against Yanis Gaudin of France.
In the women’s singles Rachel Sugden beat Madouc Linders of France 21-19 21-13 but now faces a difficult match against top seed Reka Madarasz of Hungary.
Lauren Middleton lost out to Hristomira Popovska, but she gave the Bulgarian ninth seed a run for her money, pushing her all the way in a 21-17 21-17 loss.
In the women’s doubles Rachels Andrew and Sugden lost a close encounter with Sweden’s Ashwathi Pillai and Tilda Sjoo but Middleton and Sidebottom got the better of their Scandinavian opposition, beating Maija Krzywacki and Inalotta Suutarinen of Finland 13-21 21-19 21-19.
Apiliga and Pringle eased to a 21-6 21-3 win over Croatia’s Luka Grubic and Israel’s Rotem Mogilner to join the Grimleys in round 2 of the men’s doubles.
Meanwhile, Adams older brother Ciar was busy trying to qualify for the main draw of the men’s singles at the Belgian International in Leuven. He beat Dutchman Timo Stoffelen 21-15 21-17 in round one of qualifying but then suffered defeat to Yang Chih Chieh of Chinese Taipei.
Jack MacGregor also lost out in men’s singles qualifying at the hands of Malaysian Labieb Muhzafar Lakamagi, while Holly Newall opened up her women’s singles campaign by beating Manon Krieger of France 21-17 21-18 but missed out on qualification for the main draw when she was beaten 21-14 21-15 by Finland’s Airi Mikkela.
Results, live scores and draws at www.tournamentsoftware.com
Live streaming from Tallinn at www.youtube.com/user/BadmintonEuropeConf