After finishing 9th in their last event in Marseille, Becchara Palmer and Lou Bawden continue their fine recent form, qualifying for the A1 Grand Slam in Klagenfurt, Austria. Their pool is Brazil heavy, featuring Vivian-Lima BRA, Maria Clara-Carol BRA and Hansel-Montagnolli AUT. They reached the main draw with wins over Jin J.Q.-A. Hu of China, 2-0 (22-20, 21-15) and Jakob-Vodeb of Slovenia 2-0 (21-17, 21-17).

Great news also for Australia, with Tamsin Hinchley and Nat Cook being granted a wild card into the event! They face Dutch pair Wesselink-Meppelink, Americans Kessy-Ross and another Dutch tandem, Keizer-Van Iersel.

Unfortunately Hinchley and Cook lost a tight 3 setter to Kessy and Ross! It took almost an hour for the Americans to win 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 15-11). This puts Tam and Nat on the back foot in the group, but they will take great heart from performing strongly against the 6th seeded pairing and will look for a win tomorrow against the Dutch.

Another tight game in game 2 for Hinchley and Cook, this time they got up in a tight 3 setter 1-2 (24-22, 22-24, 8-15) against Keizer-Van Iersel. They followed this up with a loss to Wesselink-Meppelink 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) but they have scraped through to the next round in 3rd place in their group.

The last of our Australian teams has been knocked out with Maria Clara-Carol defeating Hinchley-Cook 2-0 (21-15, 21-16).

Becchara Palmer and Louise Bawden were successful in their first match, making a great upset win over Maria Clara-Carol of Brazil (the number 8 seeds) 1-2 (21-23, 21-17, 17-19)!!
The girls have lost their second game, their Austrian opponents were too strong in the 3rd set, winning 2-1 (20-22, 21-19, 15-7). The girls have finished off their group matches with a loss to Vivian-Lima 2-0 (21-14, 21-18). This leaves them in last place in their pool, and puts them out of the competition. Bad luck Bec and Lou!

Chris McHugh and Josh Slack lost their qualifying match against Dugrip-Salvetti of France 0-2 (17-21, 19-21). Sam Boehm and Isaac Kapa lost to Plavins-Smedins of Latvia 0-2 (18-21, 18-21). Both men’s teams are now out of qualifying and will have to move on to Poland next week.