20 May, 2024
Brandon Yap and Abbygael Harris played their way to the semi-finals of the Slovenia Open 2024 as England’s brightest battled it out in Maribor.
The last time England struck gold at the competition was 2019 when Victoria Williams partnered Jenny Mairs and Greg Mairs for gold in both the women’s and mixed doubles.
Fifth seeds Harris and Yap fought through three rounds to set up a semi-final meeting with Amri Syahnawi and Indah Cahya Sari Jamil, who earned a 21-11 21-18 victory to reach the final.
In their opener, the English pair cruised past Szymon Stokfisz and Jessica Orzechowicz 21-15 21-15 and set up their quarter-final place with a hard-fought 21-18 22-10 win over Canada’s Jonathan Bing Tsan Lai and Crystal Lai.
They conquered third seeds Mihajlo Tomic and Andjela Vitman 22-20 16-21 25-23, thought they could not match the win in their semi-final bout.
Harris also partnered Annie Lado as third seeds in the women’s doubles, though the pair did not make it past the round of 16, exiting after being beaten 21-14 21-10 by Malaysia’s Tan Zhing Hui and Carmen Ting.
Lado and Samuel Jones made it as far as the last 16 in the mixed doubles but could not punch their ticket to the quarter-finals, as they were stopped by Indonesia’s Verrell Yustin Mulia and Priskila Venus Elsadai 21-14 21-15.
In the men’s doubles, Yap joined forces with Kelvin Ho, though the pair were unlucky to be drawn in the first round to top seeds Lau Yi Sheng and Lee Yi Bo.
The English duo were beaten 21-11 21-10 in the round of the 32 to cut their hopes of a medalling conquest short.
Jones and Oliver Butler were similarly knocked out in the opening round, losing 25-23 21-15 despite battling hard against Choi Jian Sheng and Wong Vin Sean.
Freya Patel-Redfearn flew the flag in the women’s singles and made it to the round of 16 after coming from a game down to beat Petra Maixnerová 18-21 21-17 21-18.
But she missed out on the final eight to eventual winner Rakshitha Sree Santhosh Ramraj who claimed a 21-16 22-20 win.
Image: BadmintonPhoto
