Easton heads up string of semi-final runs at Turkish International | Badminton England

Oct 15, 2024

13 October, 2024

Rory Easton led a Badminton England semi-final surge at the Turkish International, reaching the final four in both the men’s and mixed doubles.

Easton joined forces with Alex Green to take on number one seeds Eloi Adam and Leo Rossi of France in the men’s doubles semi-final and started off strong.

The French pair took the first game before the English duo fought back to force a third, ultimately falling 21-19 24-22 21-15 and missing out on a chance in the final .

It was a busy day for Easton who had already made his first semi-final appearance of the tournament alongside mixed doubles partner Lizzie Tolman.

The duo had cruised through their quarter final 21-14 21-15 against Germany’s Jonas Ralfy Jansen and Thuc Phuong Nguyen earlier in the day to take their place in the final four and came up against Lea Palermo and Julien Maio of France, missing out on a final spot with a 21-19 21-13 defeat.

England’s Harry Huang also made a semi-final appearance in Turkey, coming close to a final spot after losing 22-20 21-17 to number one seed Kalle Koljonen from Finland who went on to take the overall victory.

Huang had battled through a nervous round of 16 against France’s Gregoire Deschamp, including a tough second game, but ultimately walked away with a 21-10 12-21 21-13 win.

And after his quarter-final opponent Vishal Vasudevan retired after just 24 points were played, Huang saw himself through to the final four.

Sian Kelly saw a double helping of quarter finals, teaming up with Annie Lado in the women’s doubles before also reaching the last eight in the mixed doubles alongside Oliver Butler.

Kelly and Lado showed strength in their second game against second seeds Paula Lopez and Lucia Rodriguez of Spain but were downed 21-13 11-21 21-12 in Turkey, whilst Kelly and Butler also forced a third but struggled to hold on against India’s Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde in their quarter final.

The day before, Butler had previously reached the round of 16 with men’s doubles partner Samuel Jones, who had also teamed up with Lado in the mixed doubles round of 32.

Abbygael Harris and Tolman were in action in the women’s doubles and saw great success in the round of 32, storming over their Turkish opposition to win 21-9 21-5 and set up a tasty round of 16 battle.

The English pair produced a scare for the number one seeds by forcing a third game against Ukraine’s Polina Buhrova and Yevheniia Kantemyr but were left with too much to do and bowed out with a 21-16 16-21 21-17 loss.

Rohan Midha, Freya Redfern and Nadeem Dalvi were all in action in the round of 32 for men’s and women’s singles but missed out on progressing to the next round of competition.