Van Rietvelde storms to men’s doubles title

BADMINTON: Scotland’s Paul van Rietvelde and England’s Ben Stawski claimed their first men’s doubles title after a giant-killing string of results in the Turkish Open at Antalya.

The unseeded pair had knocked out the Danish top seeds, Nidas Nohr and Mads Pedersen, 21-18 15-21 21-12 in the second round and the No 3 seeds, England’s Chris Coles and Matthew Nottingham, 21-16 21-17 in the semi-finals.

In the final, van Rietvelde, the 20-year-old from Longniddry in East Lothian, who represented Scotland in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi last year, and Stawski completed the great run with a 21-19 21-13 victory over the Danish No.4 seeds, Mikkel Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Overgaard.

Staswki, a 21-year-old from Nuneaton, also won the mixed doubles title. Seeded No 1 with Lauren Smith, they won an all-English final by the same 21-19 21-13 scoreline against Chris Coles and Jessica Fletcher.