Scott Evans’ seventh successive win in Irish National Championships
The Irish no.1 Badminton player Scott Evans continued his dominance in Ireland by winning men’s singles title in the Irish National Championships 2011 on Sunday. The ruling top seed in Ireland, won the final against the Tony Stephenson in a three set battle.
The defending champion took 42 minutes to defeat his opponent and claimed the title once against making it his 7th consecutive victory in the final of Irish National Championships 2011.
The 23-year-old Scott Evans, enjoyed a comfortable win over Conor Hickland by a big margin of 21-7, 21-6 in just 26 minutes. He continued his smooth run in the second round where he defeated Tony Murphy even more convincingly by 21-6, 21-4. The semi-final
was not that easy as Scott worked hard to get rid of Ruaraidh Sim who played well but bowed to the defending champion with the score of 21-14, 21-16. The Irish no.1 won all of his matches in straight games before the final battle.
Tony Stephenson also played very well in the opening matches of the event. He defeated no.2 seed Scott Burnside in the first round by 21-11, 21-17. In the second round he clinched an easy victory over Ronan Mcgee by a convincing score of 21-11, 21-9. The
following round was easier where he proved himself by beating John Amond by a great margin of 21-9, 21-6. Tony Stephenson had to work very hard in the semi-final match against Jonathan Dolan. It was a tight three set fight where luckily Tony won the battle
by a close score of 20-22, 21-18, 22-20 in 48 minutes.
It was unexpectedly a thrilling final as Scott Evans was the favourite for the title. He won the previous six editions in a row and performed superbly in this event so far. The fans of Scott even knew that it will be a one sided match because of his performance
in the tournament. He didn’t lose even a single set to anybody in the whole event. However in the title match, Tony Stephenson came with other things in mind and stunned everybody when he defeated Scott Evans in the first set with a huge margin of 21-10. Scott
remained unable to find the gaps in the court as his opponent was keeping the pace of the game high and eventually he lost the opening set which was also the only set he lost in the whole event.
Stung by the first set defeat, Scott Evans roared on his opponent and pushed Tony Stephenson in all corners of the court. He won the second set by 21-14 score on the board. The final set was not that difficult as the favourite shuttler kept the pace high
and controlled the rallies throughout the match. He remained on the driving seat and won the game by a good margin of 21-10. He won the National Championship title for the 7th consecutive time. Michael Watt is has the record of 11 titles in Irish
National Championships 2011 and James Doyle won 8 titles.