Carolina Marin storms into the final at 2022 European Championships
Spain’s top shuttler Carolina Marin is one win away from clinching her sixth her European title, while men’s singles champion Anders Antonsen is back in the final against his countryman Viktor Axelsen.
Badminton
Carolina Marin is just one win away from successfully defending her continental crown at the 2022 European Badminton Championships in Madrid.
The Rio 2016 Olympic champion and local favourite ousted Turkey's Neslihan Yigit 21-14, 21-13 on Friday evening (29 April) continuing her impressive comeback from the knee injury which prevented her from competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021.
Her opponent in the final is Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour, who beat Mia Blichfeldt (Denmark) in the other women’s singles semi-final, 21-19, 19-21, 21-10.
Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen and last year's winner Anders Antonsen (both Denmark) will meet again in the men's singles final. It is a rematch of the 2021 final when Antonsen won the title by a walkover.
While number two seed Antonsen had his work cut out on Friday (29 April) before beating Toma Junior Popov 21-16, 19-21, 21-15 in the semis, Axelsen crushed Misha Zilberman (Israel) 21-10, 21-11 in just 27 minutes.
How they reached the Badminton European Championships semis
Marin showed the strength of her mettle on Thursday evening by defeating Denmark’s Line Højmark Kjaersfeldt 21-11, 14-21, 21-17 to stake her claim on a place in today’s schedule.
Up until the quarter-final stage, Rio 2016 Olympic champion Marin had been relatively untested, cruising through the first two rounds at the Centro Deportivo Municipal Gallur.
If there were any doubts whether the five-time European was truly back after her 11-month long injury hiatus they were duly laid to rest when she came out on top of gruelling hour and five-minute duel with the Dane.
Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour meets Mia Blichfeldt in the other women’s singles semi after both players were taken to three games against their respective opponents in yesterday’s quarters.
Denmark’s reigning European champion Anders Antonsen will square up against France’s Toma Junior Popov, while the Tokyo 2020 men's singles champion Viktor Axelsen takes on Israel’s Misha Zilberman, who eliminated sixth seed Brice Leverdez to earn his place in the semis**.**
2022 Badminton European Championships: Singles semi-finals - schedule and results
Semi-final action is to begin at 16:00 CET on Court One on Friday 29 April:
- Toma Junior Popov v Anders Antonsen - Antonsen won 21-16, 19-21, 21-15.
- Viktor Axelsen v Misha Zilberman - Axelsen won 21-10, 21-11.
- Carolina Marin v Neslihan Yigit - Marin won 21-14, 21-13
- Kirsty Gilmour v Mia Blichfeldt - Gilmour won 21-19, 19-21, 21-10.
You can follow all the action here on Olympics.com throughout the event.