Kirsty nets a title on return to court Gilmour back to her best to win in Austria
Kirsty Gilmour bagged her first tournament win since returning from action as she took the Austrian Open women’s singles title in Vienna.
Gilmour (23) from Hamilton followed up her morning 21-12 21-18 semi-final win over Japan’s Rira Kawashima by defeating Germany’s Fabienne Deprez 2117 21-9.
Sixth seed Gilmour trailed 9-5 and 13-9 in the opener, but drew level at 14-14 and went on to take the first game.
It was a different story in the second game as Kirsty quickly took charge from 4-4 and produced a seven-point winning surge from 14-9 to clinch victory in style after 31 minutes.
That win, watched by Scotland’s new head coach Tat Meng Wong, gave Gilmour her first major title since October 2015, when she beat Deprez on the way to the Dutch Open crown.
Gilmour said: “I came close at the Malaysia Masters, where I was runner-up, but I think this is my first win – and I’m undefeated in 2017!
“It feels really great to be back on top of that podium. This tournament went exactly to plan and I’ve managed to achieve some of the smaller goals that I set myself from the outset, too.”
Kirsty added: “Working with Tat Meng is great so far. He’s quite relaxed and calm behind the court. It will be interesting to see how we go forward in training from here.”
The tournament in Vienna was Kirsty’s first international event since the Rio Olympics, and came just three weeks after winning her sixth Yonex Scottish National Championships women’s singles title in her first outing following knee surgery.
Kirsty dropped just one game on the way to the Vienna victory, and that was in a tight quarter-final contest with Japanese top seed Yui Hashimoto.
The performances were watched closely by Tat Meng, and he was delighted with what he saw.
He said: “I’m happy with her performances since Kirsty had been out of the international scene for the last five months.
“Winning this title means she is on the right track back to where she was before, and I believe she will be capable of being a great challenger at the top level of the women’s singles world stage.
“Beating top seed Yui Hasimoto in the quarter-finals was really tough, but it was good to bring Kirsty’s confidence level up for the next round.
“There is still a lot of detailing work for me to work with her yet.”