Hollander and Baglar face each other in the quarterfinal tomorrow, the winner will go to the Paralaympics!

As if the need to collect crucial Paralympic ranking points at this week’s final qualifier for the Games isn’t enough, Megan Hollander (NED) and Zehra Baglar (TUR) have just 50 Race to Tokyo ranking points between them with every likelihood that just one of them will make the cut and get an invite to Tokyo 2020.

A quarterfinal loss for one, and a semi-final minimum performance for the other will split the two women by at least a further 100 points. Enough for Hollander to secure her position but enough too for Baglar to overtake the Dutch SU5 in the women’s single race.

We spoke with Megan Hollander shortly after final Group stage match today, who had this to say:

- I am very excited about tomorrow match with Zehra, it has been a year since we last met and I’m ready to fight. I feel great right now, despite a minor injury last week which I thought might put this tournament in doubt. It was a close match with Mamiko (Toyoda, JPN) yesterday which proves I am close to her level and that’s a great sign.

- I’m only training four times a week recently but that will increase if I do qualify for Tokyo, and that would mean a lot to me. So to get this far after a relatively quiet year is just great! I haven’t been training full time and had been struggling mentally but it just proves what can be achieved with the right mindset, she added

Read: Doubles: Who is on the plane to Tokyo?

Loquette - ‘I am ready to fight till the end’

In a repeat of so many European men’s singles finals over the last decade, Poland’s Bartlomiej Mroz and Turkey’s Ilker Tuzcu will face off once again tomorrow. 

Mroz who retains his number two seeded position in the draw would face Group C runner-up in the quarterfinal and that came down to an all European clash between Tuzcu and rising French star Meril Loquette.

We spoke with Loquette after his 21-12, 13-21, 21-12 win over Tuzcu to set up his quarterfinal match up tomorrow with Mark Modderman (NED) who shared his thoughts with us:

- I am very happy to win today against Ilker, who is just behind me in the Race for the Paralympics. I had a great start at 11-2 up and finally had the belief that I can beat this man. I am hoping that I can repeat this performance tomorrow in the quarters.

- I am so happy that I can fight on with my French team with me. I have been training hard, in fact I was delighted to be invited by BEC to the training camp in Denmark which was a great experience. I have been working hard and very focused for this final tournament and I’m ready to fight till the end.

Follow the Spanish Para badminton international tournament here this week and across our usual platforms. The schedule and results can be found on tournament software here