Susan Hughes, the No.2 seed, cruised through to the quarter-finals of the women�s singles in the Bank of Scotland International Badminton Championship yesterday then declared that she�s never played better.
Susan Hughes, the No.2 seed, cruised through to the quarter-finals of the women's singles in the Bank of Scotland International Badminton Championship yesterday then declared that she's never played better.
The 26-year-old Scottish champion has put the disappointment of missing out on this summer's Beijing Olympics behind her and is riding a wave of confidence despite being dropped from the Great Britain squad. As a result she is concentrating on the European circuit instead of the more demanding Super Series world tour.
"Of course I was disappointed at not making the Olympics and in hindsight I should have had a different tournament programme, but I was in the GB set-up and it was effectively a case of here's your programme, take it or leave it," said Hughes.
"I was playing in tournaments where the fields were unbelievably strong. They always are in the Super Series and in Olympic year they were even stronger. Almost without exception I was going out in the first round and I was losing confidence.
Sometimes I was in Asia for two weeks and getting only two matches."
Hughes was dropped by GB after refusing to move south to the National Badminton Centre at Milton Keynes.
Supported now through sportscotland and back under the wing of national high performance coach Dan Travers, she has climbed the world rankings again to No.31, a rise of 13 from the start of the year, having reached finals of events in Bulgaria and Belgium.
Significantly she also defeated the world No.7, Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia, in the French Open, a Super Series event. It was a victory that sent her spirits soaring.
"I've had a hard summer's training and it's showing in the results, especially that win in France, and in future I will be looking at more of a mix of EBU and Super Series tournaments," said Hughes, who has recently announced her engagement to Dylan Egelstaff, a Yonex equipment salesman.
Looking lean and sharp, Hughes defeated Daphnee Laliberte, of Canada, 21-12, 21-12 and then Ireland's Chloe Magee 21-12, 21-19 to be the sole Scots survivor in the last eight of either men's or women's singles.
Kieran Merrilees was last man standing in the men's singles. In the morning, he made short work of Blagovest Kisyov, the Bulgarian, 21-7, 21-11, but despite leading in both sets went down 21-15, 21-15 to the No.12 seed, Henri Hurskainen.
Unlike Hughes, the 19-year- old has gone south to the national centre, where he is rapidly improving. Travers sees a bright future for him. "He has absolutely everything he needs to get to the top - speed, fitness and shuttle control - but he needs more confidence, mental toughness and fitness, and he has to cut out the fancy stuff.
"Kieran - and Gordon Thomson - are benefiting from practising with the English players at Milton Keynes and even if the GB system wasn't to continue the way it is at the moment we would hope the boys showed enough form that they would be accepted elsewhere for sparring practice."
Travers also had a word of encouragement for 15-year-old Kirsty Gilmour, who put up a gutsy show before losing 21-18, 15-21, 17-21 to Croatia's Stasa Poznanovic.
"She's young and inexperienced. I think she saw she could win and panicked a bit, but she's a great prospect and she'll learn from that," he said, adding that although she is not a member of the Scottish Institute of Sport she is benefiting from an open-door policy.
"She has a marvellous attitude to training and she's been to a couple of our sessions. I will allow any player who I think is good enough and who has the right attitude to come to any of our sessions."
