Gilmour wins SaarLorLux Open
Kirsty Gilmour scored one of the best results of her career over the weekend, winning her first title since the 2018 Scottish Open as she took gold at the SaarLorLux Open in Germany.
Gilmour put together a series of outstanding results, including a win over reigning Olympic and three-time World Champion Carolina Marin in the semi-finals.
She had opened her campaign with a hard fought three game battle against Line Christophersen of Denmark, winning 21-14 13-21 21-18 before a more straightforward 21-10 21-10 victory over Bulgarian Linda Zetchiri.
That put her into the quarter-finals against Lianne Tan where she showed that months of lockdown have not dampened her renowned fighting spirit.
Having lost the first game Gilmour took control early in the second, levelling the contest 21-17 before demolishing the Belgian 21-8 in the third to set up a semi-final clash with Marin.
Gilmour again had to battle hard. Despite being ahead for the majority of the opening game she found herself facing a game point with the score poised at 20-19 in Marin’s favour.
But Scotland’s number 1 held her nerve to win it 22-20 before taking control early in the second, closing out the match 22-20 21-14 to claim her first victory over Spain’s world number 6 since 2014.
In the final Gilmour faced Germany’s Yvonne Li, taking control early to win an easy first game 21-10.
The second was a more closely contested affair and Li briefly led, but Gilmour scored four points in a row from 17-17 to secure the gold medal.
“What a week,” she commented afterwards. “So happy with what I brought to the court – attitude, patience, control.”
“Everything I’ve been working on came together and I’m one happy girl!”
In the men’s doubles Alex Dunn and Adam Hall reached the quarter-finals. The fourth seeds scored two straightforward wins in the early rounds, opening with a 21-12 21-15 defeat of Austrians Philip Birker and Dominik Stipsits before ousting Polish duo Maciej Matusz and Wiktor Trecki 21-11 21-10 in the second round.
But Denmark’s Daniel Lundgaard and Mathias Thyrri ended their campaign by coming from behind to win 15-21 21-19 22-20 on their way to the final.
Full results at www.tournamentsoftware.com