New women’s doubles pair Chloe Birch and Estelle Van Leeuwen reached the quarter-finals of the VICTOR Swedish Open in Uppsala.
The freshly-formed duo were downed by fourth seeds Tea Margueritte and Flavie Vallet, who came back after Birch and Van Leeuwen took the first game.
The match finished 15-21 21-15 21-18 in the French pair’s favour following a hard-fought quarter-final duel.
Birch and Van Leeuwen took a 21-18 21-14 victory over Denmark’s Sofie Karmann and Clara Lober in their opening round of 16, but a spot in the semi-final against top-seed Swedes Moa and Tilda Sjoo was not meant to be.
Despite the result in Scandinavia, all experience is contributing to the growth of the promising pair, who have already proved their partnership is gelling on court after reaching the Estonia International final on debut.
Badminton England focus turns to the Super 500 Indonesian Masters next week, which gets underway on 23 January.
