Scots win a brace of titles in Portugal
Scotland took a title double at the Portuguese International yesterday, being held in Caldas Da Rainha.
Unseeded Lauren Middleton and Holly Newall claimed the women’s doubles while an all Scottish final saw Christopher Grimley and Eleanor O’Donnell beat Adam Pringle and Rachel Andrew to win the mixed doubles crown in the first match of the morning.
Pringle and Andrew had reached the final courtesy of a number of impressive performances.
They had opened their campaign by saving a game point against home hopes Tomas Nero and Mariana Chang to win 22-20 21-13 before saving a match point on their way to an outstanding comeback victory over second seeds Emil Lauritzen and Iben Bergstein, beating the Danes 13-21 21-18 23-21.
Their fighting qualities were in evidence once again in the quarter-finals as they beat Jaume Perez and Claudia Leal 23-21 19-21 21-16 before saving two more game points in their semi-final, having dominated the first game, to beat Wiktor Trecki and Wiktoria Adamek of Poland 21-12 22-20.
The Poles had knocked out fourth seeds Matthew Grimley and Sarah Sidebottom in a three-game tussle in the quarter-finals.
Having already knocked out the top seeds on their way to the final Grimley and O’Donnell were just too strong, winning 21-18 21-6 to deservedly take the top step of the podium, but a silver medal is an outstanding achievement for Pringle and Andrew who are both aged only 19.
Holly Newall and Lauren Middleton won the tightest of matches in the women’s doubles final, beating Ireland’s Sara Boyle and Rachel Darragh in a contest which could have gone either way.
The Scots held their nerve to win 22-20 25-23, having reached the final courtesy of a 22-20 21-12 win over Andrew and her partner Rachel Sugden in the semi-finals.
It could have been an all-Scottish final in the women’s doubles too if O’Donnell and Sidebottom could have got the better of Boyle and Darragh in the semi-finals, but the Scots couldn’t overcome the Irish pair, having saved two match points to beat top seeds Adriana and Sonia Goncalves of Portugal 21-13 18-21 24-22 in the previous round.
It was almost a clean sweep of doubles titles for the Scots but the Grimleys lost out 26-24 24-22 in the men’s doubles to experienced Frenchmen Lucas Corvee and Brice Leverdez, who had contested the singles final earlier in the day.
Leverdez had come out on top against his compatriot in that match while Swiss Sabrina Jaquet beat Leonice Huet of France to take the women’s singles.
Full results here!