Glasgow: The home favorite and top seed Kirsty Gilmour was the overwhelming favorite to win Scottish Open Grand Prix women’s singles title, unfortunately her dream of claiming her second Grand Prix crown of the season (Gilmour defeated Karin Schnaase of Germany to win Dutch Open title six weeks ago) was shattered by Denmark’s Line Kjaersfeldt on Sunday.
The top seed eased past Line Kjaersfeldt in the first game 21-16, but dropped the second set 16-21 against the Dane. When Gilmour led 13-10 in the decider, Scotland’s hopes were high but Kjaersfeldt quickly turned the tables after the score was tied at 16-16 and moved swiftly to 20-16 before clinching victory with 21-18. In addition to women’s singles title, Denmark enjoyed double joy on Sunday by taking home the men’s singles title also.
“I don’t think I played particularly badly, but it was just that extra little bit of tension, just not hitting convincingly enough, just that little bit of spatial awareness gone. I did everything I could to get that back but Line was on form. It’s not lost on me that I’m only 22 and could still have another eight of these to do. I need to look at silver linings and take this one on the chin,” said Gilmour after the match.
Kjaersfeldt, ranked 15 places lower at No 35 in the world, said: “I stayed calm and patient and believed in myself. I’m really happy. It was my first Grand Prix win. It was a really good atmosphere. The crowd here are very knowledgeable about badminton and I always enjoy coming here.”
Men’s singles top seed Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark dispatched England’s Rajiv Ouseph with a 21-19, 11-21, 21-16 victory to claim the title for Denmark for the first time since Peter Gade won in 1996.
The women’s doubles finals turned out way easier than Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota expected when the Japanese pair was handed a victory after their Dutch opponents Iris Tabeling/Samantha Barning had to retire in the second game with a suspected torn calf sustained by Iris Tabeling.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Michael Fuchs and Johannes Schoettler beat Andrew Ellis and Peter Mills 21-15. 21-18 in the men’s doubles final.
The mixed doubles title went to Russia’s No 6 seeds Vitaly Durkin and Nina Vislova, when they pulled off an upset to defeat France’s third seeds Ronan Labar and Emilie Lefel 21-14, 21-12 in 31 minutes.
