The 27-year-old Scot’s semi-final opponent, Switzerland’s Jeanine Cicognini, was an unknown quantity, so Travers secretly recorded her quarter-final match earlier yesterday and the pair had enough time to study it intently to establish Egelstaff’s tactics for the match that would take her to today’s showpiece final in Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall.

“We took the view that although Jeanine was obviously a good player she was not particularly mobile and my tactics were to make her move the full length of her side of the court and the full diagonal. Happily I was able to carry that out pretty well,” said Egelstaff (nee Hughes), who beat the unseeded player comfortably 21-17, 21-12.

It was a vital move because Cicognini had shown her capability in Friday’s second round by eliminating the No 4 seed and defending champion Elizabeth Cann of England.

Egelstaff’s victory set up a showdown with her long-time rival Ella Diehl of Russia, who won this event in 2005 and 2006, under her maiden name of Karachkova. She is the 
No 1 seed and the Scot the No 2 seed.

Egelstaff has an extra incentive this afternoon. She declared before the start of the tournament that she wanted to win it for Travers, the national high performance coach who is leaving at the end of the year as a result of restructuring within BADMINTONscotland.

“It would be nice to win it in Dan’s last year,” she said. “I have played Ella loads of times, so I know her style and I won’t need to watch a recording of her. She has beaten me more often than I have beaten her, but I have won twice against her and I’m playing well. I definitely have a chance.”

The Glasgow woman who collected a bronze medal three years ago at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games has long been regarded as 
capable of winning this prestigious event. She has won five other European Badminton Union titles, but until now by her own admission she has tried too hard in front of her own folk with a resultant drop in performance.

Egelstaff was particularly pleased by her quarter-final showing against the more athletic No 8 seed Tatiana Bibik, also of Russia, which she won 21-15, 12-21, 21-13, making full use of her spec-iality cut smash and she is certain home nerves are now a thing of the past.

Although it is her first women’s singles final, Egelstaff has been there on finals day before, partnering Kirsteen McEwan in a women’s doubles final defeat seven years ago. This time she is much better equipped to go one step further.

There will also be a Scot, Emma Mason, in the women’s doubles final today. She will partner England’s Mariana
Agathengelou against Russian No 1 seeds Valeria Sorokina and Nina Vislova. Agathangelou won last year with Scotland’s Jillie Cooper who was on the losing side of the net against her former partner, this time in tandem with another English woman, Samantha Ward. The men’s final will be contested by No 1 seed Marc Zwiebler of Germany and Danish No 4 seed Peter Mikkelsen.