After her loss in the final yesterday, Thaddea Lock bounced back immediately with partner Mollie Kubrick-Finney to win the women’s doubles title again, comfortably winning 11-3, 11-1.
This was Mollie’s first title at the English Nationals, and saw Thaddea retain her title from last year.
Today’s final saw former partners Thaddea and Antonella Giuliano face off on opposite sides of the net after winning the women’s doubles together at last year’s Nationals.
Speaking to Sam Basford after the game, Thaddea said it feels ‘really good’ to have retained her title.
“I think me and Mollie just came out and played really solidly. She was very easy to play with, she barely missed the ball so she made my job really easy.
“It’s great to win again!”
Mollie was all smiles after winning her first title, saying: “It feels great, and it feels great to be playing with Thaddea as well.”
Yesterday’s silver and bronze medallists Thaddea and Mollie teamed up to sail through their pool matches unbeaten. They had two whitewashes along the way, winning their other two matches 15-3 and 15-6.
Their semi-final matchup was against Jess Wilson and Natalie Novikova, and they also won easily, coming through 11-0, 11-1. The solitary point from Jess and Natalie was cheered like they had won the game as they dropped into the bronze final with smiles on their faces.
Their progression from Group B in second place was secured by the finest of margins, with their -3 point differential just beating out Mercedes and Hermione Baxter Chinery (-7), and Nikki Withers and Magha Kapoor (-9) as all three pairs were tied on two wins.
Pei Chuan Kao, winner of the women’s singles title yesterday was back in action in the women’s doubles with her partner Antonella. They cruised through Group B, winning all four games by the same score, 15-3.
This set up a semi-final matchup against Julie McCauley and Emma Wrixon, who they dispatched comfortably, 11-0, 11-4 to advance to the final, where they unfortunately struggled to get into the tie at any point. Despite a valiant effort to save three match points, they were unable to mount any kind of comeback from 10-1 down in the second game.
Second place in Group A had come down to point differential, with three pairs tied on two wins. Julie and Emma came out on top, with their +6 being much better than the -3 of Linda Randall and Kelly Cannings, and way ahead of fourth-placed Faye Plummer and Kelly Dawson who finished on -16.
