All-England Junior Badminton Championships – Scottish Juniors Shine Against Elite Opposition

4th August 2025 by Robert McLean

Scotland’s top junior badminton players made their mark at the All-England Junior Championships, showing real grit and talent against international competition across four intense days of singles and doubles play.

Friday Highlights – Strong Starts and Doubles Success

The day kicked off with a commanding win for Pranavi Singh, who beat England’s Daya Variangattil 21-16, 21-10 in women’s singles. Qing Yang Xiao lost to England’s Martha Ng (9-21, 10-21), while Malik Clowes battled to a hard-fought men’s singles win over the USA’s Justin Kan 21-8, 9-21, 21-11. Luke Parkinson was defeated by Oliver Wu (ENG) 8-21, 12-21.

In doubles, Scotland picked up several key victories:

  • Deepti Vijayakumar / Qing Yang Xiao def. Yi Lin Goh / Ina Law (ENG): 21-12, 21-14

  • Alfie Martin / Lewis Smith def. Shriyans Bhagavatula / Arush Chitgopkar (USA): 12-21, 21-10, 21-19

  • Thomas Fragell / Arnav Saraswat def. Phil Daniel / Nikhil Pulikkottil (ENG): 21-19, 9-21, 21-16

  • Alfie Martin / Qing Yang Xiao def. George Clare / Mia Fox (ENG): 21-16, 17-21, 21-19

  • Thomas Fragell / Deepti Vijayakumar def. Eden Gough / Hayley Liow (ENG): 21-12, 21-15

  • Lewis Smith / Lilly Wood (ENG) def. Phil Daniel / Mudra Mayekar (ENG): 21-15, 21-16

Other closely contested matches included:

  • Malik Clowes / Luke Parkinson lost to Jason Goh / Joel Joby (ENG): 18-21, 21-23

  • Callum McWhirter / Chloe Mackenzie lost to Zach Tang / Jemima Ellis (ENG): 15-21, 12-21

  • Luke Parkinson / Aditi Dhelaria (ENG) lost to Daniel Kemp / Saffron Morris (ENG): 18-21, 22-20, 14-21

  • Chloe Mackenzie / Anshita Jaiswal lost to Ying Jian (CAN) / Anoushka Shetty (ENG): 14-21, 9-21

Saturday Summary – Narrow Losses and Fighting Performances

Saturday’s highlight was a thrilling men’s doubles quarter-final where Lewis Smith / Alfie Martin were edged by Americans Justin Kan / Nihal Kadamba 21-13, 14-21, 19-21, after a superb last-16 win over England’s 3rd seeds Jasper Wong / Yixiang Hou: 21-18, 19-21, 21-14.

In singles, Malik Clowes retired injured during his last-16 match against Ulvi Huseynov (AZE), trailing 5-21, 4-11. Pranavi Singh lost to Victoria Dübendorfer (SUI): 18-21, 14-21.

More close matches followed in doubles:

  • Thomas Fragell / Arnav Saraswat lost to Zach Tang / Samuel Pulikkottil (ENG): 15-21, 11-21

  • Deepti Vijayakumar / Qing Yang Xiao lost to Martha Ng / Shraddha Gopalakrishnan (ENG): 19-21, 21-16, 14-21

  • Alfie Martin / Qing Yang Xiao lost to Jasper Wong / Shraddha Gopalakrishnan (ENG): 19-21, 20-22

  • Thomas Fragell / Deepti Vijayakumar lost to James Song / Lucy Brierley (ENG): 16-21, 16-21

  • Lewis Smith / Lilly Wood (ENG) lost to David Ng / Katie Hoult (ENG): 12-21, 18-21

Promising Signs for the Future

Despite a few narrow defeats, Scotland’s juniors showed tremendous competitiveness, resilience, and skill. With multiple match wins and experience gained against top seeds and international pairings, the team can take great confidence from this high-level event.

The future of Scottish junior badminton looks bright.