The Grimley brothers over recent years have become synonymous with the future of Scottish badminton, but what do they need to do to beat the best?

Christopher Grimley, 20, brother to his men’s doubles partner, Matthew, was growing in confidence in the early part of 2020. He came through the mixed doubles qualification with Eleanor O’Donnell and reached the round of 16 at the Austrian Open. In the men’s doubles, he narrowly missed out on the final, losing out to Dutch pair Van Der Lecq/ Jille 21-18 in the decider. 

Discussing what they believe they need to work on to convert these close matches into wins, Christopher Grimley says. 

- To beat the top European plays in the near future we need to work on strength, ability to read the game better, improve tactically by watching/learning from the best players in the world and try to put it into our game on court. In the long run, keeping injuries to a minimum and to keep working hard.

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Be the future

The 2018 European Junior Championships silver medallist also performed strongly as a singles player, but he stopped in order to focus on mixed and men’s doubles. In the latter, he has now reached 60 in the world. These great results amalgamated into him being nominated for the 2019 BEC Young Player of the Year award. Explaining what this meant to him, he said. 

- To be nominated alongside some of the best juniors was really nice to see that my results were being noticed.

Lastly, we asked directly whether he believes they will be the future of European men's doubles. Christopher Grimley humbly responded. 

- I hope we can be the future of European men’s doubles; we will definitely give it our best shot!