SCOTTISH GP 2013 SF – Scottish finalists at home

Kirsty Gilmour set up a repeat of her London GPG final against Carolina Marin as she was joined by the Scottish poster girl Imogen Bankier who will play with Robert Blair in the mixed against the English pair Langridge / Olver.

By Michael Burke, Badzine Correspondent, live from Glasgow.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (archives).

Home hopes had a good early start at the Yonex Scottish Grand Prix as Robert Blair and Imogen Bankier (pictured left) flew into the finals, dispatching one half of last year’s runners up, Selena Piek, playing with new partner Jacco Arends.

The Dutch failed to trouble the strong Scottish pairing, who never went behind after the mid game of the first end, taking the game 21-13 21-16 in a brisk 32 minutes.

In the women’s singles, Kirsty Gilmour (pictured right) also booked her place in a home final after a tough three-game match against Spaniard Beatriz Corrales, with whom she plays at her club in France.

The Scot sailed through the first game taking it easily, but struggled in the second, down 11-3 at the mid game interval a gap too far to recover, admitting after, “I just can’t get the hang of the other end.”

Starting at her preferred end she took an early lead in the third, 11-4 up at the break, and defended this to take the rubber 21-16.

Speaking afterwards, “I’m really glad to get to the finals as it’s the furthest I’ve ever been here, before I’d only managed semis in the doubles and quarters in the singles.”

She will face Spaniard Carolina Marin (pictured left), to whom she lost in the Adidas London GPG, and the Scot spoke of the potential rematch, “Obviously this has always been a possibility with the first and second seedings, so I’ve been prepared for this, but we have videos of both players so I’ll be happy playing either.”

Marin spoke after her game, having beaten Danish challenger Jensen, saying “It will be another final, I’m looking forward to playing her.”

“We have a very different game, I have to be careful about what I do against her. I will be ready and just have to do what I did in London.”

In his second semi-final of the day, Robert Blair playing with Tan Bin Shen (Malaysia) lost out to the Danish pairing of Rasmussen / Sorensen (pictured right) in a tight game, as they were edged out both games to 19.

Speaking after, Rasmussen said, “This is a good arena, we’re feeling pretty confident at the moment. At this tournament, our goals were pretty low so we’re just having fun so maybe that’s why we’re doing so well.”

Asked about playing their compatriots Conrad-Petersen / Pieler Kolding in the final, the Danes were  downbeat, Sorensen continuing, “I have a really bad knee injury which I had a twist again at the end of the second game. I’ve already withdrawn from the mixed to play this game, so I’ll monitor it tonight and see how it feels in the morning.”

As expected, it was later announced on the tournament website that they were forced to withdraw.

Ng Hui Ern and Ng Hui Lin won by default against Hanadia / Permatasari as the Indonesians were forced to retire due to injury, after a disappointing performance, with the score at 21-10 19-13.

The Malaysian pair, runners up in the Bitburger Open GPG will face their conquerors from that day, the Dutch pairing of Muskens / Piek, after they came past home favourite Bankier. The Malaysian’s have to balance their study as final year students at Loughborough University, speaking after the match to say, “We had to bring our dissertation work with us, the work/badminton balance is really hard, but we’re nearly done so it’s not so bad.”

Asked on their future post-studies, they said, “Yes, the plan is to take this on full time, unless either of us does some ridiculous like break our leg.”

The full results for the day can be found here.