Christopher and Matthew Grimley sail into the quarter-finals of the Scottish Open
Matthew and Christopher Grimley lit up night two of the Scottish Open with an imperious 21-15 21-10 triumph over English pairing Ethan Van Leeuwen and Rory Easton, cruising into the men’s doubles quarter-finals and sending a statement of intent to the rest of the competition.
It was a dominant showing from the local pair, who hail from Glasgow and were being supported by a raft of family and friends in the Emirates Arena stands.
The twins had earlier progressed into round two after an equally ruthless 21-6 21-8 triumph over Jordan Edgar and William Freer, using that momentum successfully as they dispatched another inexperienced English pair.
And the convivial duo, who teed up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash with Taipei pair Wei Chun Wei and Wu Guan Xun tomorrow, were in positive spirits after their success.
“We managed to control the game well there and we defended really well too, which kind of made the difference in the end,” Matthew said.
“It’s a good win but the next game’s going to be even harder, so we’re going to have to bring an even better game.
“We’re playing the pairing from Taipei, which is going to hard as they’re always pretty good on the flat and fast stuff, so we need to get our game-plan ready for tomorrow.”
Christopher added: “We want to work on getting a better start to the match – we were probably a bit nervous at the start of the game rather than just going in and keeping the intensity up.
“I felt like we were in control for most of the match, which made the difference for us there.”
Adam Hall and Alex Dunn also booked their place in the men’s doubles quarter-finals in a thriller on Court One, edging past English pair Callum Hemming and Tom Wolfenden 18-21 26-24 21-14 to the relief of the home crowd.
The third seeds did it the hard way after creeping past Mathias Christiansen and David Daugaard in two tight games during the afternoon session, and believe their never-say-die attitude is the result of their wealth of experience as a pair.
“It was a bit tighter than we would have liked – it’s always the same when we play people from our own country and it’s that bitty kind of match where no-one really gets the edge,” Hall said.
“It was really just a big fight and there was no real big difference between either pair – we just had a bit more towards the end of the second set and after the turn of the third we never really looked back.
“Over the last year we’ve had a lot of tight three-set losses, so it’s always good that we’re starting to win a few and get that experience and not panic at the end of sets.”
Dunn added: “Not too much was going through my mind at the end of that third set – it was mainly just not to panic, as we knew it was going to be a hard game.
“We knew we could bring it back, and then it was just a real fight to stay in, cling on and try to get to that third set.
“I think wins like that come with experience – there are going to be so many of those games to come in the future and it’s obviously good to get on the winning end of as many as possible.”
Elsewhere for the Scots, youthful duo Alastair Campbell and Callum Smith had their admirable Scottish Open run ended by number one seeds Jason Anthony Ho-Shue and Nyl Yakura, going down to a brave 10-21 12-21 defeat on Court Four.
But the two young prodigies have still had a tournament to remember, surpassing expectations in reaching the second round and believing they’ve accumulated some valuable experience.
“There’s no shame at all in going out to a pair like that – they’ve been playing together for years and we’ve had about three tournaments, so to get to the second round means we’re still happy,” Smith said.
“In future we’ll hopefully be back and be able to do the same next year.”
Campbell added: “We played a really good pair there – we didn’t play our best but it was a good experience.
“I’m really happy with how we’ve done at the tournament – I’ve had a lot of fun as well and it’s been a great experience and a great tournament all round.”
Night two of the competition also saw a range of Scottish women in action, as Julie MacPherson and Ciara Torrance toppled English fifth seeds Jenny Moore and Victoria Williams 21-14 21-14.
And that symmetry in the scoreline was reflected in their chemistry on court, combining unerringly to pick up one of the results of the evening and book their place in tomorrow’s quarter-finals against second seeds Emma Karlsson and Johana Magnusson.
But it wasn’t quite so smooth for Sarah Sidebottom and Eleanor O’Donnell, who succumbed to a disappointing 8-21 19-21 defeat to seventh-seeded Danish duo Julie Finne-Ipsen and Mai Surrow.
It was still a performance with glimpses of positivity from the pairing, however, who remained in buoyant spirits about their future as a combination.
“This is only our second tournament together, so it’s still a pretty new partnership and we’re trying to get to know how each other play,” O’Donnell, 21, said.
“We’ve played with different partners for our whole career, so now it’s a case of trying to work out what we both like and what we do, and what will best suit us going forward.”
“It was definitely a slow start for us today – our first set was over pretty quickly and we just didn’t really get into our rhythm or rallies,” added Sidebottom, 19.
“The second set was definitely a lot better but there were just a few wee things that went wrong – we kept trying to win the rallies too early instead of sticking to what we were doing.”
Elsewhere on the night, Karlsson and Magnusson progressed into the weekend of the competition with a win over Abbygael Harris and Vivien Sandorhazi, while fellow Swedish pair and eighth seeds Clara Nistad and Moa Sjoo defeated Amy Hayhoe and Natalia Mitchell.
In the men’s singles, number one seed Lakshya Sen overcame Indian compatriot Kiran George 21-17 21-19 to reinforce himself as the competition’s frontrunner, while 2017 Scottish Open winner Toby Penty beat Leo Rossi and Ygor Coelho defeated Rasmus Messerschmidt.
As the tournament now moves into the weekend and the business end of the competition, the stage is set for a super Saturday as the quarter-finals match-ups begin tomorrow morning.
Full results are at www.tournamentsoftware.com
Tickets are on sale at badmintonscotland.org.uk/scottish-open/tickets
The Scottish Open Badminton Championships is being staged at the Emirates Arena by Badminton Scotland with support from Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Life, and Yonex.
For more information contact Peter Dean, Head of Events, on 0141 445 1218 or email peter@badmintonscotland.org.uk