Resilience has been a factor for Sanne Keizer and Madelein Meppelink in the 2020 Dutch season. After coming up short four times, the veterans finally secured their first title this weekend during the National Tour event in Heerenveen. Steve van de Velde and Yorick de Groot prevailed among the men.
The 2018 European champions, Keizer and Meppelink had been stopped by 21-year-old Katja Stam and the 18-year-old Raisa Schoon in each of their four attempts to take gold in their home sand. Their fortunes changed this weekend as they downed the up-and-comers in three sets (21-91, 16-21, 15-8) to top the podium in Heerenveen.
The bronze medal in the women’s tournament went to Emma Piersma and Puk Stubbe, who defeated the van Driel sisters Emi and Maxime in straight sets (26-24, 21-19).
The men’s final saw a matchup between two temporary teams. Steven van de Velde, whose regular partner in Christiaan Varenhorst, and Yorick de Groot came out on top of the duel as they upset Rio 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Robert Meeuwsen and Ruben Penning, who filled in for Alexander Brouwer, 2-1 (19-21, 27-25, 15-9).
Belgians Dries Koekelkoren and Tom van Walle completed the podium after they defeated Dirk Boehlé and Mart van Werkhoven 21-13, 21-11.
The next stop of the Dutch Tour will take place in Breda next weekend.
Makroguzova and Kholomina victorious in Russian event
The Russian Tour event in Lipetsk also had an elite World Tour team at the top of the podium as Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina took the honors. He men’s tournament was won by Alexey Gusev and Pavel Shustrov.
Makroguzova and Kholomina, who finished second to 18-year-old Mariia Bocharova and 20-year-old Maria Voronina last week in Obinsk, also got their revenge as they defeated the reigning Youth Olympics champions 21-19, 21-9 to take the title. Daria Rudykh and Elizaveta Zayonchkovskaya finished third.
The men’s tournament, which didn’t feature the country’s top teams, saw the triumph of Gusev and Shustrov, who downed Alexey Arkhipov and Dmitry Veretyuk 21-19, 21-16. The bronze medals went to Alexander Kramarenko and Maxim Khudyakov.
The next event in the country’s calendar is the Russian Cup, which will take place in Anapa next weekend.
