Polish veterans Adam Cwalina and Przemyslaw Wacha (pictured) walked away with the men’s doubles title in Brno this afternoon and in doing so gained sweet revenge over the pair that beat them at their home international just seven days ago.

The Poles were visibly upset by their defeat on home soil and vowed to put the record straight this week in Brno which they did in a classic men’s doubles encounter in front of a packed hall. After trading opening games 22-20 with Chen and Wang from Chinese Taipei it became a do or die scenario in the deciding game.

Wang and Chen started to tire, weighed down by a heavy tournament schedule, and the Poles seized the opportunity even though Wacha was suffering heavily with a bad cold. In the end nothing was going to stop the Polish duo from lifting the title and they did so with a 21-12 victory in the deciding game.

“This tournament was not about world ranking points this was about putting the wrongs of last week right and it was about pride” said Cwalina after the victory.

We knew when we saw the draw that Wang and Chen were waiting for us and we were determined not to let it pass us by even though we are suffering a bit with sickness”.

Gilmour shows her class in retaining her title

Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour achieved yet another milestone in her fledgling career as for the first time in her career she successfully defended a title she won in the previous year.

The Scott got off to a slow start against Polish winner and Belgian runner up Cheng but a new mental strength in Gilmour’s game saw her work things out and come through the toughest of tests with flying colours.

Gilmour took the opening game 21-18 after trailing 11-7 at the interval and the Scot was never going to let an 11-3 lead in the second slip between her fingers. Gilmour powered home to lift the title and achieve yet another first in her career.

“It took me a while to figure her out in the opening part of the game but once I got going I never felt I was going to lose.” Said Gilmour to Badminton Europe

“It is great to win here again and it’s almost a better feeling to win for the second year in succession than it was the first time around”

Different year same result for Cooper & Gilmour in women’s doubles

For the second year running Kirsty Gilmour partnered up with Jillie Cooper only to fall short for the second year running in the women’s doubles final. It was always going to be a huge task for the Scots with Bankier and Nedelcheva on the other side of the net. Bankier and Nedelcheva have already two victories under their belt this season and try as the may Cooper and Gilmour were not about to end that remarkable run.

The winners of the Belgian & Kharkov internationals came home for the early season hat trick and have set their eyes on bigger prizes in the future.

“This week like the others has been about points and climbing the world rankings to get into Super Series main draw. We have another big week in Bulgaira next week followed by the Dutch Open and good results there will sees us where we need to be” said Bankier after the victory.

Elsewhere Anup Sridhar lifted his first title in Europe in many years in an easy two game win over Indra Bagus Ade Chandra while Chinese Taipei managed to take one title in the mixed doubles as Wang and Wu ended the home court dreams of Basova and Bitman.

For all results from Brno click HERE

Article and Image by Mark Phelan (Live at Czech International)