IT could have been a demoralising week for Britain’s No.1 badminton player but Kirsty Gilmour’s response
to show that she was undaunted by the threat to her livelihood was to win the first international tournament she has played in this year at the Austrian Open.
Indeed this was Gilmour’s first appearance on the circuit since the Olympics in Rio last year and her victory in the final was her 11th in
an unbeaten run since she made her comeback which also saw her pick up a sixth singles and a first mixed doubles title at the Yonex Scottish National Championships earlier this month.
A winner’s cheque was all the more welcome at the end of a week that had begun with confirmation that GB Badminton is to lose all of its UK Sport funding and continued with the news that sportscotland, another key source of funding for leading Scottish sportspeople, is to have its revenue slashed by 20 per cent.
“As a competitor I think you’ve just got to accept that you can’t control these things and get out there and play as well as you can,” was Gilmour’s response.
“I want to find ways of becoming more self-reliant in these terms so winning the tournament certainly helps and it was a particularly pleasing victory because it my 10th international title which means I can add a new dot to my tattoo. It was also really satisfying because you wouldn’t normally expect to have such a strong field at a Challenger event.”
While the 23-year-old would have entered a tournament at this level as strong favourite a year ago, her time on the sidelines since undergoing knee surgery means she has slid from 14th
to 54th in the world rankings, so was only seeded sixth.
Furthermore, her route to the final was barred by the top seed, Japan’s Yui Hashimoto who also has a career high of 14 in those world rankings which she, too, achieved last year.
“It was absolutely typical that I would be drawn in the same quarter as her, but it was really encouraging to win in three games,” said Gilmour.
She had beaten two Danish youngsters in straight games to set up that quarter-final in which she won the opening game 21-19, lost the second by the same margin, but then took control in the decider to win it 21-12.
She then met a second Japanese player, Rira Kawashima, in the semi-final, beating her 21-16, 21-19 before overcoming Germany’s Fabienne Deprez in the final.
“That was an interesting game because I don’t think I’ve lost to her since juniors, but she came out very aggressively and I had to be patient,” she said after her 21-17, 21-9 win.
The tournament was also her first working with Scotland’s new head coach Tat Meng Wong.
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