Scottish Open Day One Preview
The Scottish Open is less than 24 hours away. Today the hall was filled with players from countries around the world practicing, tomorrow the real competition begins with qualification.
Qualification games begin at 9AM in the Emirates Arena with over 100 games taking place across the whole day. An intense and jampacked schedule featuring over 30 Scottish players beginning their Scottish open journey in all five events.
To catch the action without being there, head over to Badminton Europe TV, linked below to watch all the livestreams across all four days.BadmintonEurope.com – Front page
There is still time to get tickets for all four days including the finals on Sunday! : https://tickets.lokkaroom.com/events/66608/the-scottish-badminton-championships-2024
Juniors stepping up
Junior Performance athletes Ishbel McCallister and Evan Kenny start off the entire tournament on court one against Spain’s Carlos Piris and Paula Lopez. On court two their teammates Angus Meldrum and Katrina Chan play at the same time against English duo Ewen Stephen and Anne Hubscher.
McCallister faces a long day as she plays the one of the final matches of the day with her historic womens doubles partner Brooke Stalker. The pair have competed in Scottish Opens before with Stalker’s first Scottish Open being when she was thirteen. Now nineteen, she’s much more relaxed going into this tournament with McCallister.
“This tournament for us is really seeing how things come at us. It’s more of a warm up for the Junior Europeans the following week so it’s nice to not have too much pressure”
Matthew vs Matthew
Also in the morning is winner of Junior Performance Athlete of the Year 2023, Matthew Waring will be competing in the mens singles qualification. This is his second Scottish Open, debuting in 2023.
“First one I was really nervous, it was my first time playing in a big hall in front of all the coaches and everyone in Scotland watching.
This one I’m much more relaxed for because I know what to expect. Because I’m a junior I don’t play that many senior tournaments, this is only third one. I’m more excited, not nervous at all just want to go and see what happens”
Waring takes on another Celtic Matthew, as he faces Matthew Cheung of Ireland. He joked that whoever loses must rescind their name. “I think I’d go for Giovanni or Matholemew, that’s what Kirsty Gilmour calls me”.
One to watch
An exciting one to watch is Rachel Sugden, Scotland’s top women’s singles player who is third in qualification and looking for one of those all to play for qualifying spots.
“It’s going to be a good challenge. Hopefully I can get through and build on the momentum and almost use it to my advantage as I’ll have played in the hall and have a little bit of experience.”
This is Sugden’s second Scottish Open, with last year being a great success. “Last year I had a really good tournament, I made it to the quarter finals so I’m hoping it goes that well again this year.”
Return of the Smith Brothers
Wildcard Callum Smith will begin his Scottish Open debut in the singles on Friday but before that kicks off he reunites with his younger brother Tyler as they compete in the mens doubles qualification. Tyler played until under 15s in the Scottish National Squad with coaches often saying he had better technique than his older brother.
“It’s a shame he didn’t continue because he would have been a really good player, play in front of your home crowd and have our family watch us. He really supports me, tracks all the results. It was me that asked him if he wanted to compete together and play on the international circuit.”
Unexpected pairings.
A rare sight can also be captured tomorrow with both Grimley twins competing in mixed doubles – Chris with fellow Scot Ciara Torrance and Matt with Dane Sara Thygesen.
“It’ll be fun with Ciara as we’re good pals and it’s good fun on court.”
“It’s nice when we have our family and friends to come and watch as there aren’t many chances for that to happen.”
The twins will begin their aim to reclaim their 2021 Scottish Open title on Friday. Reminising on the win, they noted it was a great tournament the whole way through.
“That was a great tournament for us as we beat former number threes in the world in the semi final and then the Malaysians in the final and we weren’t seeded that highly. That was our first international win so was great to do on home soil.”
A full list of games and times can be found on tournament software here: Matches – Scottish Open 2024 | Tournamentsoftware.com