In a day scattered with upsets probably the most remarkable and memorable of results was the victory of Switzerlands Sabrina Jaquet in the women’s singles as she made it through to the quarter finals. After the demise of Hongyan, Vittinghus and Rasmussen & Conrad to lower ranked opposition the sweetest and most heart warming of results came when Jaquet fell to her knees in tears of joy after beating eight seed Agnese Allegrini at the tail end of the days play in Karlskrona.

Yes, Jaquet may have had a more favourable draw than many but the hard working Swiss player still had to go out and do the job to make it to the last eight.

Jaquet took the first set pretty easily against Allegrini and had a commanding lead in the second leading 20-16 when her nerves clearly started to get a grip. Allegrini came back point by point and at 20-19 the Swiss looked a clear bag of nerves on court.

In the final rally, which was always going to be a long, Allegrini’s net shot fell just outside the side line to give Jaquet the win she so richly deserved. The Swiss number two fell to her knee in tears and was so obviously overcome with emotion that she almost forgot to shake hands with her opponent immediately after.

In an interesting sub plot this win now fulfils Jaquet’s home associations strict Olympic qualification criteria being that any player to qualify for the Olympics, ranking aside, must claim a quarter final or better at a major championship or second round in a Super Series. Jaquet has now done that and now can go and play freely with no pressure in the quarter final against number two seed Juliane Schenk of Germany.

“This is a huge step for me in my Olympic qualification. There is one more tournament left for others to make the mark but this is a huge step. I was so tense at the end and I just tried not to think too much but it’s so hard for these thoughts to stay away but I did it in the end and wow what a relief” said a delighted Jaquet to Badminton Europe.

You can watch the match and Jaquets post match interview on demand on BEtv by clicking here and be sure to follow BEtv for semi finals from 5pm local time where we have Adcock/Bankier against Wallwork/Robertson, along with Tine Baun, Viktor Axelsen and Boe and Mogensen all on the streaming court.
A great evening’s play in Store in Karlskrona!

Article and Image by Mark Phelan (Live in Karslkrona, Sweden)