Nadeem Dalvi, Zach Russ, Lisa Curtin and Sian Kelly were among the impressive English performers at the 2025 Slovenian Open.
Dalvi reached the quarter-final of the men’s singles before falling to Ting Yen-Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-11 21-11 while the duo of Curtin and Kelly bowed out at the same stage of the women’s doubles with a 21-5 21-11 defeat to Indonesia’s Velisha Christina and Az Zahra Ditya Ramadhani.
It was the same story in the men’s doubles, where Zach Russ, partnered with Denmark’s Jeppe Søby, lost out to Indonesia’s Jonathan Farrell Gosal and Adrian Pratama in the quarter-finals.
Dalvi began his campaign in the men’s singles with victory over Italy’s Enrico Baroni before outlasting Singaporean Jia Wei Joel Koh in a back-and-forth battle.
After a 25-23 defeat in the first game, Dalvi rallied to take the next two 23-21 21-18 to confirm his passage to the last eight before bowing out to Ting.
Curtin and Kelly opened their tournament by easing past Poland’s Amelia and Marie Kisiel 21-8 21-14 ahead of a 21-9 21-19 win over Italians Martina Corsini and Emma Piccinin to reach the next stage, where their run was ended by Christina and Ramadhani.
Back in the men’s doubles, Robin Harper and Harry Wakefield reached the last 16 before a 21-17 24-22 loss to Russ and Søby.
And the pairing of Oliver Butler and Samuel Jones, along with the duo of Ho Fung Sze and Wang Yuehang, reached the same stage.
Butler and Jones were beaten 21-16 21-16 by eventual champions Huang Tsung-I and Ling Ting-Yu of Chinese Taipei while Ho and Wang went down 21-17 21-11 by Malaysia’s Loh Ziheng and Tan Zi Yang.
Butler went onto reach the round of 32 alongside Abbygael Harris in the mixed doubles, with Harper emulating the feat alongside Kelly.
Freya Redfearn was the pick of English performances in the women’s singles after reaching the round of 32, where she was defeated by India’s Yashvi Bhat.
Photo credit: Mak Chiu Wo/BadmintonPhoto
