Kirsty Gilmour has been beaten in the final of the Victor Far East Malaysia Masters but Britain’s top women’s badminton player can take huge encouragement from a fine week’s work in Penang.
The 22-year-old from Glasgow, who went into the event unseeded, had gone into the final in Penang with some reason for confidence since she claimed the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games when Sindhu took the bronze and she had also beaten the Indian woman on their only previous meeting in 2013.
However she trailed from the outset as her opponent who is ranked eight places above her at 12th in the world, built a 12-6 lead in the opener which she went on to take 21-15 and was even more dominant in the second, leading 16-6 at one stage before closing it out 21-9 in just 32 minutes.
Gilmour had, however, beaten two other higher ranked players, Thailand’s Busanan Ombumrungphan and Japan’s Yui Hashimoto in the preceding two rounds and in terms of rankings it also matched her best ever week’s work since there are more points available for reaching the final of what are termed Grand Prix Gold tournaments than for winning ordinary Grand Prixs such as the Spanish Open which Gilmour won in 2014, beating world number one Carolina Marin in the final.
Her previous best effort at this higher calibre event was at the London Grand Prix Gold tournament in 2013 when she also met Marin in the final and lost.
Reaching the final in Malaysia in her first competition in a year where she is all but certain to represent Britain at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was all the more telling, however, because her quarter and semi-finals provided the best evidence so far of her improving capacity to challenge players from Asia, badminton’s dominant region.
Reflecting on her performance as she prepared to head to Sindhu’s native India for another Grand Prix Gold event which gets underway on Tuesday, Gilmour admitted to having been out of sorts in the final but excited by a week’s work which also offers pointers towards the things she and coach Chris Bruil can work on when they get back home.
"Of course I'm disappointed with the result in the final,” she said.
“The shuttle felt so sensitive today. I tried everything in my power to get it under control and find some rhythm. I managed it in some rallies but not consistently enough. But overall it's been a good tournament for me.
"I've learned a lot this week and Chris and I have a plan going forward to improve some key areas when we get home and back to training, but for now I'm looking forward to testing myself out in the Syed Modi International."
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