Susan Hughes had her dream of a first Bank of Scotland International title well and truly crushed yesterday when she lost in the semi-finals to Estonia’s Kati Tolmoff at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. 

But there will be one Scottish finalist as Edinburgh’s Jillie Cooper joined
England’s Mariana Agathangelou scored a couple of shock wins the women’s doubles. 

A new partnership and unseeded, they had a great 18-21 21-13 24-22 quarter-final win over the top seeds, Rachel Van Cutsen and Paulien Van Dooremaien, and followed up with a 21-16 16-21 21-17 win over Ireland’s No.4 seeds, Bing Huang and Chloe Magee.

They now face the Swedish second seeds, Emelie Lennartsson and Emma Wenberg, for the title with Agathangelou hoping to go one better than her runner-up place with England’s Gabby White last year.

Hughes, the No.2 seed, had been in great form in the quarter-finals and cruised through 21-17 21-10 against England’s Helen Davies.

But the unseeded Tolmoff held all the aces in the semis – and even managed to hold off a desperate second game fightback from the 26-year-old Scottish Champion. 

The first game was really a hopeless task for Hughes from the moment she lost ten of the first 12 points, but she did manage to rally in the second as she came from 5-15 down and edged into a 16-15 lead. But her unseeded opponent refused to buckle. 

The men’s doubles semi-finals also produced a semi-final disappointment for home hopes with the Belshill’s Andy Bowman and Wales’ Martyn Lewis losing to the English pair of Andrew Ellis and Richard Eidestedt. 

The Celtic pair, who had beaten No.1 seeds Ruud Bisch and Koen Ridder 21-16 21-13 in the last quarters, held three game points in a crucial opener against the No.4 seeds before losing it 24-26. The second was lost 15-21 .

In the mixed doubles, Scots Watson Briggs and Cooper suffered a surprise defeat in the quarter-finals. Seeded no.3, the pair lost 19-21 16-21 to England’s unseeded pair of Marcus Ellis and Samantha Ward.