Larry Trumpauskas & Joseph Hunter will make their Finals Day debuts after a stunning semi-final win in the Men’s Doubles at the Mark Bates Ltd National Championships. 

The young pair came up against the third seeds Chris Doran & Ralph Pattison and raced into a two-game lead. They looked likely to wrap it up in three at 7-4 up, but the determined Doran & Pattison mounted a comeback. They won the third 11-9 and the fourth 11-6 to force a decider. 

Trumpauskas & Hunter kept their cool to win it 11-5 and book their place in the final. 

Photos by Alan Man

They will play top seeds Paul Drinkhall & Sam Walker who dispatched Connor Green & Ben Piggott in three straight to reach another final. 

Drinkhall & Walker earlier eased into the semi-final with win, also in three, against Shayan Siraj & Josh Bennett.  

Green & Piggott lost the first game to Louis Price & Tom Maynard, but won the next three to set up a semi-final against Drinkhall & Walker.  

Doran & Pattison had a tough time against Sam Mabey & Felix Thomis. After splitting the first two games, the third was very close. Several intense rallies resulted in loud cheers from each side. But Doran & Pattison edged the third and raced to the fourth 11-6.  

Trumpauskas & Hunter made light work of Joe Sawyer & Owen Brown, who reached the quarter-final after the withdrawal of the second seeds Tom Jarvis & David McBeath. Trumpauskas & Hunter won in three.   

Top seeds Drinkhall & Walker reached the quarter-finals in straight games, but were given a few problems by the para pairing of Aaron McKibbin & Billy Shilton. After winning the first game 11-2, Drinkhall & Walker faced a game point in the second, eventually winning it 15-13. McKibbin & Shilton then found themselves 5-2 up in the third, but Drinkhall & Walker drew on their experience to win it 11-9.  

Third seeds Doran & Pattison were pushed all the way by the dynamic pair of Ismaila Akindiya & Maxim Stevens. After splitting the first four games, Akindiya & Stevens were 5-1 up at the change of ends. Doran & Pattison dug deep to edge the decider 11-8. 

Price & Maynard made the quarter-finals after surviving a comeback from Toby Ellis & Nahom Asgedom. Price & Maynard won the first two, but Ellis & Asgedom were able to fight back to force a decider. But the left-hand, right-hand duo of Price & Maynard found their form to win it 11-6.  

Fourth seeds Green & Piggott eased into the quarter-finals with a three-game win over Graeme Barella & Abraham Earl Sellado.  

The Women’s Doubles will be contested by the top two seeded pairings – and both made it through their semi-finals in three straight.

Not that it was all one-way traffic, especially in the first couple of games of the match involving second seeds Mari Baldwin & Jasmin Wong. They kept opponents Ella Pashley & Mabel Shute out, however, and pulled away in the third to register an 11-9, 11-9, 11-4) victory.

In the other half of the draw, defending champions and top seeds Tin-Tin Ho & Emily Bolton also did not allow their opponents, Tianer Yu & Scarlett Anders, to get close enough to harbour ambitions of taking a game – it was 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 in that one.

Yu & Anders had knocked out last year’s finalists, Erin & Anna Green, in the quarter-finals, coming from 2-1 down to win 3-2 (11-9, 4-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-5).

Ho & Bolton were largely unscathed in getting past Millie Rogove & Anaya Patel 3-0 (8, 7, 3), while the other two quarters were done in four – Baldwin & Wong defeating Sienna Jetha & Saskia Key 11-9, 11-6, 10-12, 11-7 and Pashley & Shute knocking out Mya Sultan & Letitia McMullan 11-8, 11-4, 7-11, 11-9.

Back in the round of 16, the Greens began their campaign with a routine victory over Amy Marriott & Rebecca Savage, running through it 1, 8, 7 with few alarms.

Pashley & Shute also started like a train against Sally Hughes & Eva Eccles, but it tightened up after that – although it was still done in three (11-2, 12-10, 14-12).

Jetha & Key triumphed 9, 4 and 8 against Ella Barnard & Anna Piercey, while it was 11-6, 11-9, 13-11 for second seeds Baldwin & Wong against Sophie Ackred & Brooke Morris.

The only match not decided in three in the first round was Rogove & Patel’s 3-1 (15-13, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7) win over Parrmis Ahsani & Luna Archard, which set up that quarter-final against Ho & Bolton.

The other matches saw Sultan & McMullan prevail 3-0 (7, 4, 9) against Mia Lakhani & Rachael Iles, and Yu & Anders go through 3-0 (7, 9, 8) against Xiaoman Ji & Maliha Baig.