Lewis Smith and Matthew Waring: Scotland’s youth give exciting performances on the National Stage

Day two of the Scottish National Championships are underway at the National Badminton Academy in Glasgow. After an exciting first day of action, this promises to be another thrilling day of competition.

This is an exciting Nationals for Lewis Smith, with it being his first time seeded. One of the youngest players in the competition at just 16, Smith is at 5/8 seed surrounded by seasoned senior players. Having reached the finals in both the Under 19s Nationals Boys singles and Doubles as well as competing in the Junior European Championships, Smith has had his fair share of pressured games.

In his first round of the men’s singles, Smith took on Benedict Tan. An intense tight game, the two players battled it out over on court two with it being too tight to call throughout all three games. After losing the first set 17-21, Smith brought himself into the game swiftly winning the second set 21-11. The third set was all to play for in a close back and forth match where both players went point for point throughout with Smith managing to pull away at the crucial point, winning 21-18.

At the same time over on court three Matthew Waring took on Arnav Saraswat. Having had a tremendous end to his junior career breaking a 15 year long record with a boys singles European medal in December, Waring comes into the Nationals as 3/4 seed. In his first singles match of the competition, Waring demonstrated his talent out on the court winning both sets 21-11 and 21-8.

The European Junior teammates went on to play each other in quarter finals of the men’s Singles. This promises to be an exciting match and a rematch of the Under 19s Junior National Championships last month where Waring took the victory.

At only 16-years-old, Smith said it was “really good” to have reached the quarter finals. Ahead of his next game against Waring, he said: “There is no pressure going into the next game especially against Matthew who is one of the top in Scotland.”

Remaining positive ahead of the match, Smith spoke of his mentality to get through the game.

He said: “Especially towards the end you just give as much as you can.”

In the quarterfinal Waring took the victory in straight sets over Smith 21-7,12-21 and proceeds to the final four tomorrow. 

You can still get your tickets for the rest of the weekend of action on the link here: The 2025 Scottish National Badminton Championship – Lokkaroom – Tickets

or watch the Stream: (301) Badminton Scotland – YouTube