Scots duo go out but are certainly not down
Hall and Dunn see the positives despite second-round loss
Adam Hall and Alex Dunn couldn’t match their first round heroics as they crashed out of the TOTAL BWFWorld Championships in Nanjing, China.
A first-round victory over Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han saw them record what Paisley-based Hall described as “probably our best win to date”.
However, a second-round tie against Chinese Taipei pair Liao Min Chun and Su Ching Heng proved to be a step too far for the young Scots.
The 11th seeds were always in control and ran out comfortable 21- 13, 21- 15 winners but, speaking after the match, Dunn and Hall were far from downbeat.
“We didn’t play a bad match there. They were playing very well”, said Hall.
“The conditions were a bit different today and they came out with a game plan we weren’t really expecting, but we didn’t expect to be in the second round so to be here is a bonus.
“We are looking at the positives and we had a good win.
“We came into the tournament with zero expectations and a really bad build-up, so to be on court again today in the second round against the 11th seeds is really good.
“It’s only going to make us better and get us more experience and we’re still very young – Alex is 19 and I’m 22, so we have got a lot more world championships to play.”
Dunn echoed his partner’s sentiments, adding: “They are a very good pair and came out playing well today.
“But this has shown us that we are able to handle nerves and pressure.
“When you’re stepping out in your first world champs, playing against top players in the world, it shows that we can actually play against them and compete when we are playing our best.
“So it’s a real positive to take that, knowing we can compete with very good pairs.”
Defeat in the men’s doubles brought Scotland’s representation in Nanjing to an end, with Kirsty Gilmour having fallen to Indonesia’s rising star Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in a three-game epic on Monday.
The next competitive outing for the Scots will be at the Spanish Open from August 28 until September 2.