Welcome to day 3 of the 2026 European Championships in sunny Huelva, Spain, where 21 of the 38 matches on court today feature a seeded player or pair!
Besides this, three of the five events’ top seeds were also in action. Kicking off the day's proceedings were Danish men’s and women’s singles top seeds, Anders Antonsen and Line Kjærsfeldt, going up against Oleksii Titov of Ukraine and Keisha Fatimah Azzahra of Azerbaijan, respectively.
Anders won in straight sets with a scoreline of 21-14 and 21-6, whilst Line also came through unscathed with a relatively straightforward 21-11, 21-12.
The final top seeds competing today are the women’s doubles defending champions and sisters, Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria, going up against a mixed-nationality pair of Debora Jille of the Netherlands and Isabel Lohau of Germany. Both Debora and Isabel are European Championships medalists, so the Stoeva sisters were expecting a certain level of resistance. However, Stefani and Gabriela managed to win with a score of 21-13 and 21-14 but both players acknowledged that the level of play did not reflect the scoreline. “Getting them (Debora and Isabel) in the second round, it’s pretty tough”, mentioned Gabriela, and Stefani added “They can beat anyone on the European tour, and they can surprise everyone, so we needed to be focused”.
The shock of the day went to French women’s doubles second seeds, Margot Lambert and Camille Pognante, who lost to European Championships debutants, Lærke Hvid and Anna Klausholm of Denmark. It was also the only match where a seeded player or pair lost to their lower-ranked opponents. Margot and Camille went down in straight sets with a score of 10-21 and 22-20, unable to turn the tide in the second set. They were one of the heavy favourites for the title in the women’s doubles category, and Lærke and Anna were equally surprised at the win, as Lærke described in her post-match interview, “This is absolutely crazy! We did not expect this at all! Honestly, this is insane!” This win will give the young Danes a lot of confidence as they look to continue their 100% winning record at the European Championships.
In the second half of the day, much of the singles action took place, particularly the Popov brothers, Christo and Toma Junior, who went on court one consecutively, and both won their matches in relatively easy fashion. No fuss, no drama from both brothers as Christo came through Dominik Kopřiva of Czechia in 21-5 and 21-16, whilst Toma Junior came through this match against Germany’s Kian-Yu Oei in 21-12 and 21-11. Christo will face Danil Dubovenko of Israel in his next match, and Toma Junior will go up against Dominic Kwinta of Poland next.
The day ended with the BEC Spotlight matches with home favourites Pablo Abian and Clara Azurmendi, going up against Rasmus Gemke of Denmark and Ozge Bayrak of Turkey in the men’s singles and women’s singles category respectively. Unfortunately, Pablo went down fighting against Rasmus 10-21 and 9-21. It’s also worth noting that this is Pablo’s 20th year on the European tour and his 12th European Championships! Clara was edged in a tight three-setter against Ozge in a match lasting over an hour, with a score of 18-21, 21-17 and 19-21.
That’s it for Day 3 at the 2026 European Championships.
You can watch all the matches live on www.badmintoneurope.tv and the order of play and livescore ticker directly on www.badmintoneurope.com.
See you tomorrow!
