Local hero Kirsty Gilmour battles into final of the Scottish Open

Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour showed she is not ready to surrender the Scottish Open women's singles without a fight when she knocked out the top seed in a super semi-final at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow yesterday.

Kirsty Gilmour celebrates her semi-final victory over No.1 seed and title favourite Can Yanyan. Picture: Lorraine Hill

Chinese teenager Cai Yanyan was the title favourite and is ranked nine places higher than Gilmour at No.29 in the world, but it was the home star who claimed the spoils in a thrilling tie.

Yanyan took the opening game 21-19 but Gilmour took the next two 21-18, 21-11 in a punishing 59-minute match.

In today’s final, Gilmour will be aiming to make it a double giant-killing act when she faces No.2 seed, Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt. The Dane is ranked 21 in the world and beat Chinese fourth seed Chen Xiaoxin 21-11, 10-21, 21-18 in their semi-final.

“I was making some poor decisions at the start of the second set and thankfully I didn’t let it get any further away from me or else I don’t think I would have been able to pull it back,” said Gilmour. “I’m going to do some homework as Line is on very much a hot streak right now.”

The Dane knows what it takes to win at the Emirates, having beaten Gilmour previously in the final back in 2015.

Today’s men’s final will be an all-Chinese affair between Sun Feixiang and Lui Haichao. Feixiang beat Dutchman Mark Caljouw 21-14, 17-21, 21-19, while Haichao beat Rajiv Ouseph 13-21, 21-8, 21-19.