THERE was momentary disbelief followed instantly by ecstasy as Kirsty Gilmour realised she had fought her way through to the last eight of the World Badminton Championships in her favourite venue last night.
The 23-year-old, who is playing in her home city and claimed a Commonwealth Games silver medal in the same Emirates Arena three years ago, had faced a tough battle just to be ready to play in this competition after under-going knee surgery less than a year ago and seeing her world ranking slump as a consequence of the resultant lengthy time out.
However she battled back sufficiently in recent months to snatch the last of the 16th seeded berths and after living up to that by winning her second round match, anything else was a bonus.
She duly played a full part in a day that changed the course of the women’s event, the top two seeds, Akane Yamaguchi from Japan and Korea’s Ji Hyung Sun, having been knocked out before she and China’s sixth seed Bingjiao He took the court yesterday evening.
After losing the opening point Gilmour took full command in a manner that evoked memories for those who were there, of the way she earned that silver medal in 2014, when she won 10 points in a row.
This time it was not as decisive as it had been in that semi-final, but it allowed her to take the opener quite comfortably 21-14, albeit there were signs towards the end of the game that her opponent was finding some form.
That impression was confirmed in the second as He took it 21-15, setting up a decider, but Gilmour took the first three points and never let the gap close to within a point thereafter, taking the third of six match points.
“It was quite up and down,” she said. “There was a bit of drift down one side that made it a bit easier to attack from. I felt I played quite solidly. A couple of little shots I snatched at, but all in all it was exactly what I wanted because I knew it was going to be a tough one.”
She had previously said she had not been satisfied with simply fulfilling her seeding, but there was a real sense of achievement this time around.
“With everything that’s happened in the last year I’m just speechless. This is so positive for me,” Gilmour said afterwards. “I’m going to use this as momentum. I’m going to learn from all the things that went right and all the things that went wrong and I’m really going to enjoy this and keep this happy feeling. I think you play better when you’re happy.”
She now meets Saina Nehwal, the 12th seeded Indian whom she has not beaten, or so much as taken a game off in four previous meetings.
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