European Badminton Junior Championships 2013 (Day 1)

First up for the Irish at the European Junior Individual Championships in Anakara Turkey was a women's doubles between Rachael Darragh and Alannah Stephenson against the French pairing of Delphine Lansac and Anne Tran. The French were full of confidence after securing silver earlier in the Day in the team event.

The Irish pairing started well despite Darragh being called for a number of fault serves. In the opening set there were a number of positive rallies from the Irish but with a number of unforced errors and fault serves the French took the lead at 11-6.

From this point of the match Delphine who is also a French Senior Women's singles champion showed her class as her power proved to be too much for the Irish pairing helping the French to take the opening set. In the second set the French caught out the Irish with a number of set piece plays.

The players were out played despite their best efforts to adapt their tactics. This served as a good experience for Darragh who will hope to build on this as she still is young enough to qualify for European under 17 championships.

Stephenson will be back on court with the rest of the Irish tomorrow as they continue the Irish campaign in Turkey.