Emilie Lefel and Anne Tran from France beat Selena Piek and Cheryl Seinen from the Netherlands to reach their first ever European Championships' final.
- It is the first time that a French pair in women's doubles has a medal, so it is very important for us.
The French duo already created history yesterday in being the first French women's doubles pair to secure a medal on the European stage but today they were hungry for more and after 1 hour 15 minutes they overcame the Dutch pair to keep their dream of gold alive.
The 1st set was not in their favour but as Lefel said to Badminton Europe: ‘’after the first set we tried to not give up and to improve our tactic and it worked’’. The next two sets were really close and could have gone either way, but Emilie Lefel and Anne Tran proved that today they were the strongest pair on court.
In the other semi-final of the day, the Stoeva sisters from Bulgaria defeated Fruergaard/Thygesen from Denmark in straight sets and will try to go one step higher on the podium than they did last year.
- We will give everything we have
The French pair will not be the favourite of this final, but this could give them the opportunity to play with less pressure than their opponents.
- We lost every time, so I think that we will go really free, try to do everything and be ready to keep the tactic and do our best.
The women's doubles final will be the first match on court tomorrow starting at 11:30 CEST, in both case history will be created as neither France nor Bulgaria ever won gold at the European Championships.
Find more results from the 2018 European Championships here