Lund has been a happy hunting ground for Sweden’s women’s doubles pairs. 2017 saw Clara Nistad and Emma Wengberg lift the title and today Emma Karlsson and Johanna Magnusson have followed in their footsteps reaching the final after storming through their quarter and semi final.
The Swedish European Junior Champions from last April have not dropped a set so far in the tournament and put their good form down to the motivation gained from winning in Mulhouse last year.
“Winning the European Championships gave us a huge boost for our confidence and motivation going forward.” said Magnusson to Badminton Europe.
“It is great to be in our first final and to do it in Sweden in front of our home crowd is special.” said Karlsson.
The Swedes will now play Imke Van Der Aar and Debora Jille after the Dutch duo consigned their quarter final loss in Estonia last week to history and will fancy their chances in tomorrow’s final.
History repeating for Skodstrup
For the second successive week Michelle Skodstrup (pictured above celebrating her semi final victory) has made the final in a European circuit tournament. Last week Estonia announced her return and this week the Dane has once again come through qualification to make the final.
Skodstrup completely outplayed Marie Batomene of France in today’s semi final and will hope to bring her experience from last week to court tomorrow.
“I learned a lot from loosing the final last week and I just have to believe in myself and trust my game tomorrow.” said the Dane to Badminton Europe after her semi final victory.
It will be an all Danish women’s singles final after top seed Julie Dawall Jakobsen underpinned her credentials by beating Gayle Mahulette in the second semi final.
“I am happy of course to win. The quarter final against Line was a hard match and to beat Gayle in two games gives me confidence for tomorrow’s final."
Elsewhere the mixed doubles final will be a battle of the top seeds as Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue will face off against Kristoffer Knudsen/Isabella Nielsen. Martin Campbell and Patrick Machugh will be favourites for success in the men’s doubles final while Mads Christophersen leads the European men’s singles charge in the unlikeliest of finals against Singh of India.