Three Scottish doubles pairings tasted victory at this week’s Denmark Open in Odense

Scotland were represented in the top 16 of all three doubles disciplines at the Super 750 showpiece, the first tournament in the European swing on the BWF World Tour.

First of all, world No.16 Kirsty Gilmour collided with an inspired Ratchanok Intanon in the round of 32 of the women’s singles.

Gilmour got to 11-9 in the first game but the Thai fifth seed took the opener 21-14 and ran away with the second 21-12.

“Ratchanok was good today,” Gilmour reflected, “I had some good periods but just wasn’t enough to really hurt her. I’m still in a good place and absolutely ready for next week in Paris.”

In the men’s doubles, Alexander Dunn and Adam Hall claimed an epic three-game win over Japan’s Keiichiro Matsui and Yoshinori Takeuchi. It was destined to be a tight affair with the pairs ranked 31st and 32nd in the world respectively.

The Scots made the early running, taking the first game 21-14, but couldn’t get a look in the second as Matsui and Takeuchi took it 21-15. Dunn and Hall staved off a late fightback to win the rubber 21-18, wrapping up victory in 51 minutes.

Their week in Odense came to an end in the Round of 16 when they were well beaten by Indonesia’s ‘Minions’ 21-14 21-9.

In the same draw Chris and Matt Grimley took their Round of 32 match to the rubber where they narrowly lost out to Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar of France 18-21 21-14 23-21.

In the women’s doubles, Julie MacPherson and Ciara Torrance claimed a second career triumph over Spain’s Clara Azurmendi and Beatriz Corrales.

They dominated for a 21-13 21-15 success, but strong seeded opponents lay in wait at the second hurdle, with South Korea’s Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong proving too strong.

And arguably the highlight win of the week came in the mixed as Hall and MacPherson beat Lee Yang and Lin Wang Ching of Chinese Taipei in a titanic tussle.

Having lost the first game 21-16, they came roaring back to win a marathon second 26-24 and harnessed that momentum to dominate the rubber 21-13.

Unfortunately, they fell short of replicating that performance in the Round of 16 with defeat to Thailand’s Supak Jomkoh and Supissara Paewsampran.

Next up for the squad is the YONEX French Open at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin, that will host para-badminton at Paris 2024.