Double success for Sophie at Midland U13 tournament
Caithness Junior Badminton squad members Sophie Mackay, from Dunnet, and Liam Sinclair, of Wick, travelled to Perth to compete in the Midland Badminton Group “A” grade under-13 tournament.
Singles were both played in groups, with the top players from the pools going to the main draw play-offs and the bottom players heading to the consolation play-offs.
Sophie (11), the number two seed for the singles, didn’t drop a set in her pool, dropping only 50 points over six sets to secure a semi-final place against number one seed Ava Li.
Sophie took control from the start to win 21-17, 21-4 and went on to secure the singles title by beating Anvita Awasthi 26-24, 21-15.
Liam (10) had some tough games in his pool which saw him into the consolation quarter-finals where he played Elliott Campbell. Liam won 21-11 to progress to the semis, where he lost out 21-18 to Matthew Gajri.
The level and mixed doubles were played in a round-robin format.
Sophie played with Anvita Awasthi in the girls’ doubles. They won their first match against Ella Lue and Ruthvika Pgk 21-8, 21-2. Sophie and Anvita then played well against Bhanu Duvvuri and Avi Li but lost 22-20, 21-17, making them runners-up.
Liam paired up with Aarav Sinha in the boys’ doubles and they won their first three matches comfortably, not dropping a set. Their last match, against Saathvik Karthik Saravanan and Sumanth Prakash, went all the way to three sets with Liam and Aarav losing out 15-21, 21-17, 21-16 to finish as runners-up.
Sophie played with Aarav Sinha and Liam with Anvita Awasthi in the mixed doubles. They both had four games to play and both pairs won three of their matches, so it all came down to the game against each other to decide the winners and runners-up.
Sophie and Aarav took the win 21-14, 21-5, so Liam and Anvita had to settle for the runners-up spot.
Kerry Mackenzie of Caithness Junior Badminton Club said: “Well done to all the players and organisers for putting on a great tournament, and congratulations to Sophie on winning a double title.
“Liam and Sophie are both progressing well.”
