Hall and MacPherson into Austrian Open quarter-finals

Adam Hall and Julie MacPherson reached the semi-finals of the mixed doubles at the 2019 Austrian Open, being held this week in Vienna.

The Scottish sixth seeds beat China’s Yuan Ao and Wu Qianqian 21-14 21-17 in their opening match, following that up with a good 21-12 21-17 win over Danes Joel Eipe and Mette Poulsen.

A 21-18 21-16 win over Matthew Clare and Victoria Williams secured their semi-final berth where despite winning the first game they were unable to beat Singaporean duo Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Tan Wei Han, who won 14-21 21-19 21-17.

In the men’s doubles Hall and Alex Dunn easily won their first round tie over Israel’s Shai Geffen and Yonathan Levit but Chinese pair Liang Weikeng and Shang Yichen won their second round encounter21-18 21-14 in the last match of the afternoon to end the Scots’ men’s doubles campaign.

MacPherson and Holly Newall also won their first round match in the women’s doubles before running up against England’s Williams and Jenny Moore, who won 21-18 21-10.

Meanwhile Kirsty Gilmour lost in the first round of the Barcelona Spain Masters to China’s world no.35 Deng Joy Xuan.

The Scot went out 21-18 21-23 21-11 and will now focus her attention on the All England Championships in Birmingham from 6-10 March where she faces reigning Commonwealth champion Saina Nehwal in the first round.

Results from Austria are here or click here to view results from Barcelona