SCOTTISH OPEN 2015 Finals – Kjaersfeldt upsets home favourite

Both Danish singles players Line Kjaersfeldt and Hans-Kristian Vittinghus played tense games to win in Glasgow, with the former taking her first Grand Prix title and in the process leaving Gilmour disappointed once again in front of a home crowd.

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

Line Kjaersfeldt (pictured left) crushed local hopes as she better held her nerve to beat Kirsty Gilmour for the first time since the Scottish Open was held in Kelvin Hall back in 2011.

Kirsty started strongly but Kjaersfeldt worked her way into the match, cutting out the errors from her game as they krept into the Scot’s. The Dane was delighted, saying:

“I’m really, really happy that it’s my first victory in a Grand Prix. It’s good to beat Kirsty as I’ve lost to her the last few times.

“No [I was] not nervous, I knew that she was on the home court and she really wanted to do good today so I was relaxed, the pressure was on her.”

Gilmour was clearly upset afterwards, but gave the full credit to her opponent.

“Yeah, I don’t think I played particularly badly but just that little extra bit of tension, I was just not quite hitting them cleanly enough, kinda hoping things were out, leaving things, that spatial awareness was completely gone. I tried everything I could to get that feeling back but she was just on form today. That’s the best she’s played since we’ve met. I couldn’t quite hold on.”

It was the second three-setter of the day, as earlier fellow Dane Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (pictured right) avenged his defeat at the Bitburger last month to Rajiv Ouseph, a high point to finish before he takes a break to recover from a long standing heel injury.

“I am surprised to be honest, after the first game I was really feeling it, it was very tough, physical to play Raj, it was kind of the same story as when I played him two weeks ago at the Bitburger.

“I was quite tired after the first game. I managed to stand strong and show him that I wasn’t afraid of playing the long rallies and I think that surprised him a little bit and gave me the upper hand in the final game.”

The day had an unfortunate start as Iris Tabeling had to retire with a suspected torn calf muscle, putting an end to a spirited fight back by the Dutch pair against the Japanese winning pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hiroto.

But an injury earlier in the week to Michael Fuchs (pictured left with partner Johannes Schoettler) did not stop the German pair blowing away England’s Ellis / Mills in the Mens’ doubles final. Fuchs spoke after:

“In one word: amazing. Both of us are not on top of our physical shape, Johannes has been struggling with his hip for quite some time and I pulled my left hamstring in the first match. I actually thought we wouldn’t survive the first round and did not even think of going past the quarter finals and now we’ve won the tournament, so all credit to our physio.”

A stream of errors from the English pair helped the Germans, as despite flashes of attacking brilliance from Andy Ellis, the German pair were consistent in defence as all too often the English attack ended in the net.

The Russian pairing of Vitalij Durkin and Nina Vislova (pictured right) also made their strong tournament and yesterday’s epic comeback count, beating their third French opposition of the tournament to take the title, as well as having knocked out the first seeds on the way.

“It was a tough match, especially because the two matches before we played them and we lost both of them. Today we expected a strong game and it’s good that in the middle we had some advantage so we could keep it till the end, but it was a bit more of a nervous match [than yesterday] but it was a match for the gold medal and it’s always good to win those.”

The full results for the day can be found here.