Louis Laville and Freddie Powell claimed the doubles title at the English Nationals, sporting matching bucket hats as they cruised through the draw to win in comfortable fashion.
Like the women’s draw, the tournament ended with the singles runner-up and bronze medallist defeating a pairing containing the winner of the yesterday’s singles tournament, James Chaudry.
After a back-and-forth start to the first game, Louis and Freddie powered on from 6-5 up to win the game 11-5.
The second game saw Louis and Freddie race out to a 9-0 lead, and though it would be clawed back to 9-5, any thoughts of a miraculous comeback from James and Pep Giuliano were quickly quashed as they eventually went down 11-5.
The win represented the first men’s doubles gold medal for Louis at the Nationals, whilst Freddie retained his title from last year, with his partner in 2022, Pep, on the losing side of this year’s final.
Speaking after their win, Louis said:
“It feels pretty good. Freddie was so solid all day,
“I’m just so excited, you can see I’m a bit shaky, I’ve won singles and mixed before but never this so it was really cool to do it with my best mate.”
Freddie was quick to praise the losing finalists, “Shout out to Pep and James, they played a great final, played great all day.
“Obviously I won it with Pep last year so it was interesting to see him on the other side of the court this year!
“We felt really solid in the dinking, that’s where we felt like we had the advantage, and we didn’t get too carried away with trying to do anything flashy which for me is rare.”
Louis and Freddie came through the knockout stage relatively unscathed, having not dropped a game along the way, with Louis obviously having recovered from any injuries sustained while refereeing yesterday.
Their performance in the group phase saw them matched up against Matt Leete and Harrison Wood in the Round of 16, who they beat 15-3.
This saw them advance to the best-of-three game quarter-finals, where they knocked out Jamie Basford and Peter Hitchman quite comfortably, 11-2, 11-5. They were then able to repeat this in the semi-finals, again winning 11-2, 11-5 against Wes Jackson and Bernie Audibert, the unbeaten winners of Group D.
Pep and James also made short work of the early rounds, winning all four group stage games with a +42-point differential, before a tougher test in the Round of 16, but ultimately still a comfortable 15-8 victory over Sebastien Malbois and Roberto Rospo.
In the quarter-finals they quickly dispatched of Edward Turney and Ben Cawston 11-1, 11-2, to set up a semi-final against Tom Turney, who came fourth in the men’s singles, and his partner Sam Scadgell.
Tom and Sam started fast, taking the first game 7-11, and a shock looked like it could be on the cards, but they faded as the match went on and Pep and James came through to win the final two games 11-7, 11-5.
