Sabrina Jaquet (main picture) defied here 6th seeding to make it to the semi-finals of the Scottish Open and now finds herself in a Danish sandwich after being joined for super Saturday semi-finals by a hat trick of Danish talent in the form of Mette Poulsen, Mia Blichfeldt and Julie Finne-Ipsen.
It has been a bumper season so far for the Swiss number 1 after winning her first ever circuit tournament at the Swiss International a few weeks ago, and now finds herself within two wins of claiming a career high Grand prix title.
With two round today in the Emirates Arena Jaquet saw off the challenge of Shuo Yun Sung in round three before taking down top seed Natalia Koch Rohde in the quarter final. Jaquet got off to an amazing start in the opening game leading 14-0 before the Dane registered her first point and the Swiss player went on to take the game 21-16.
Koch Rohde bounced back to take the second but the experienced Swiss number 1 went on a run of 6 points without reply mid game in the decider to break the will of her opponent. Jaquet rounded out the win 21-10 to set up a semi-final meeting against 5th seed Mia Blichfeldt.
The second semi-final will be an all Danish affair as both Mette Poulsen and Julie Finne-Ipsen came through relatively easier quarter finals this evening.
Julie Finne-Ipsen went on to double up on semi-final appearances after winning an easy quarter final in the women’s doubles alongside Rikke Soby Hansen.
Roth downs Holst and Antonsen wins battle of the buddies
Fabian Roth (pictured above) continue his remarkable recovery from injury to book a men’s singles semi-final spot at the expense of third seed Emil Holst of Denmark. Only three months ago, Roth was without a ranking and forced to battle through qualification to make the main draw of circuit tournaments. Today the German beat Holst in three games and now finds himself in his first Grand Prix semi-final after getting to the quarter final at Dutch Open two months ago.
In the longest match of the day childhood best friends Anders Antonsen and Rasmus Gemke went head to head in bottom half of the men’s singles draw and ended up playing out the cagiest of three set matches that lasted 75 minutes before Gemke ran out of steam to allow his friend cruise home 21-10 in the deciding set.
Henri Hurskainen has had a less than inspiring 2016 but the Swede put all those disappointments behind him today beating India’s Sourabh Varma and will now play Antonsen for a spot in Sunday’s grand final.
Elsewhere in the mixed doubles, qualifiers Mittelheisser/Fontaine (FRA) and Christiansen/Thygesen (DEN) are the sole remaining Europeans in the draw and given their qualities should have the weapons to make to the final on Sunday to battle it out for gold while Jelle Maas and Robin Tabeling continued their run from qualification and booked a deserved semi-final spot taking down the Magee brothers in this evenings quarter final.
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Article an Images by Mark Phelan (Live in Glasgow)