Nic Strange and Joe Morgan Win the Mens Doubles in Slovak Open 2012

The first match saw the Welsh duo come up against a high ranking Croatian junior pairing of Filip Spoljarec and Josip Uglesic. After a slow start and being down 20-16 in the first set some good serving and controlling play saw the Welsh take the first set 22-20. After this they went onto win the second 21-14 moving into the quarter finals.
Next up was the 3rd seeded pair of Jonas Christensen (Norway) and Misbun Misbun Shawal (Malaysia). Some dominating play saw the Welsh take the first set 21-13 quickly following with the second set 21-17 taking them into the semi finals.
A Czech pair of Pavel Florian and Jaromir Janacek came up next and this saw the Welsh lose their first and only set of the competition. After being down a set the Welsh managed to claw back the second set to take it into a decider. After point for point play the Welsh came through on top winning 21-16 in the 3rd.
Onto the final where the Welsh played the number 1 seeds from Belarus Aleksai Konakh and Yauheni Yakauchuk. After some dominating play the Welsh took the first set 21-9 and feeling confident moving into the second they again took a quick lead. The Belarusians started to make progress toward the end and crawled back to 17-16 but the Welsh were to strong and took the final winning 21-9, 21-17.
Nic Strange quoted ‘it was great to play my first international tournament and we got off to the right start for the season. I can’t wait to get back playing and work on my ranking with Joe. Winning is just an amazing feeling and now we have to get back to Cardiff and get a good block of training in before Irish Future open 3 weeks’.
Joe Morgan quoted ‘I am absolutely delighted. I have had a tough couple of years due to injury and to win my comeback international is fantastic. A great start to the new partnership with Nic. We played well all weekend’.