Brice Levedez of France lifted the men’s singles title at the Scottish Open Grand Prix this afternoon in Glasgow in a three set game against a rejuvenated Henri Hurskainen. In front of a packed emirates Arena and his Royal Highness the Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, the French number one had to battle his own demons as well as the inform Swede.
The Frenchman took the opening game with little or no resistance from Hurskainen but knew the Swede had more to give once the second set got underway. “I could not believe how easy I won the first game and Henri seemed to finding it hard on court”
The Swede showed the grit and determination that brought him European silver in 2012 as he came right back in the second game to level the scores and one set each.
“In the second game I started to feel very tired after the matches here this week and if I am honest I started to feel like I was going to lose when we went into a third game” said the Frenchman.
Hurskainen seized the initiative early and looked to be heading to the title when leading 15-11. However Leverdez started to impose his attacking game an went on a run 7 points in a row to take a commanding lead 18-15.
“I really had to focus hard to fight back into the set and I think maybe Henri was feeling as tired as I was which gave me hope”
The Frenchman went onto take the match 21-16 and could not believe his good fortune as he fell to his knees in celebration. “This is a really big win for me as it was a tough mental battle on court as well as been a hard physical battle. It is great to win a Grand Prix which is one of the biggest successes of my career.
Marin goes Back to Back in Britain
Carolina Marin broke the home hearts by defeating home town girl Kirsty Gilmour in what proved to be a most entertaining women’s singles final. The Spanish world number 18 was taken to three games by the ever improving Gilmour before coming through 21-13 in the third game. Marin was happy to add the Scottish Open Grand Prix to the London Grand Prix Gold that she won just 6 weeks ago in a repeat of that same final against Gilmour.
“This has been a very big win for me after having a 6 week break with injury since winning in London. It was tough for me to have to take time out but these good times make up for those bad times and I look forward to many more battles with Kirsty over the coming years”.
Scotland had some success on finals day as Imogen Bankier and Robert Blair lifted the mixed doubles title in two games over Langridge and Olver of England.
“It was great to win here in front of our home crowd and we look forward now to the commonwealth games in the summer and hopefully we can lift that title in this arena also” said Bankier.
Dutch Pair Selena Piek & Eefje Muskens added the Scottish Open women’s doubles title to the Bitburger Open title they won only two weeks ago which is sure to earmark them as one of the most improved pairs in not only European but world women’s doubles.
The men’s doubles title went to Conrad and Kolding of Denmark after an injury to Kim Astrup shortened the finals day to just four matches. The Danish champions had to play only two games to lift the title this week after a series of walkovers cleared their path to the title.
“It is not the way you want to win a title for sure but we are happy to collect the points for the win and move on to our next tournament together” said Kolding.
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Article and Image by Mark Phelan (Live in Glasgow)