Badminton star Kirsty Gilmour wins the Yonex Dutch Open in Almere while Johanna Konta is on the verge of reaching the main draw in Linz. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Kirsty Gilmour maintained her fine recent form to beat Karin Schnaase in the Yonex Dutch Open final in Almere on Sunday.
Gilmour has now won two titles from three finals in the past month after claiming the FZ Forza Prague Open and finishing as runner-up at the Yonex Belgian International before this success.
The Brit, seeded fifth, trailed 11-9 in the opening game against third seed Schnaase but came back strongly to triumph 21-16, 21-13 over her German opponent.
Gilmour is currently ranked at 26 in the world but should receive a further rankings boost following this victory to cement her spot as Great Britain’s female No.1 ahead of Fontaine Chapman.
And the 22-year-old couldn’t hide her delight at lifting her first Grand Prix trophy.
“So happy with my first Grand Prix win,” tweeted Gilmour, who won a silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“And against one of the best people on the circuit.”
Johanna Konta is just one win away from the main draw of the Linz Open after seeing off Julie Coin in Austria.
British No.1 Konta came out on top against her French opponent 6-4, 6-2 in relatively comfortable fashion to reach the third and final qualifying round for the WTA event.
That extends her remarkable recent run of form to 23 wins from 25 matches – her only two losses since exiting Wimbledon being to Venus Williams in the quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open and to two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova at the US Open.
The 24-year-old now has a career-high ranking of 49 in the world and will face world No. 101 Klara Koukalova from the Czech Republic for a place in the main draw in Linz.
Mahama Cho warmed up for next weekend’s World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Manchester by picking up a bronze medal at the Belgrade Open in Serbia.
With valuable ranking points on offer in the continual search for Olympic qualification, Cho racked up two victories in the +87kg category before going down to Russia’s Roman Kuznetsov 3-1 in the semi-final.
The 26-year-old dramatically beat Greece’s Konstantinos Gkoltsios 9-8 on a golden point in his opener before moving past Mikel Bernal Fernandez of Spain 8-2 in the quarter-final and should head to next weekend’s competition on home soil full of confidence.
However, there was less joy for the other Brits in action in Belgrade as Max Cater lost 15-9 to Russia’s Ivan Muradashvili and Josh Calland went down 16-12 to Sotiris Giavris of Greece.
Youngster Ben Haines did pick up a hard-fought 3-2 win over home favourite Budimir Krivokuca in his first fight of the day but then narrowly lost 3-2 to Croatia’s Hrvoje Sep in the last eight.
Sportsbeat 2015