Lau and Presho make early exits in Portugal

Lau was really looking forward to his first round mens singles clash against Portugal’s Ricardo Silva seeded 5/8.

For earlier this year he had faced Silva in the Carlton Irish Under 19 Open and despite losing out on that occasion 11-6 11-8 11-6 there was enough to suggest to the young Alpha player that he could turn the tables and gain revenge for that defeat.

His preparations for the competition had gone well and this showed when he took the opening set albeit 21-18.

The second set could have gone either way and to say that the seeded player had snatched the set 18-21 was perhaps not an overstatement of the fact.

There was nothing between the two players in the deciding set and as the game approached its final stages, the Portuguese player was able to edge ahead and book his place in the next round 21-18.

For Curtis Presho this was very much an opportunity to sample this level of competition and although he was knocked out by Portuguese Miguel Roche 21-11 21-10 in the opening round he will have benefitted from the experience.