OLDS — Local residents Mary Marshall and son Ryder Persson, 14, won the B flight of the Open Yonex AB series held Jan. 19-20 in Calgary.
Marshall also finished second in the B flight in women’s singles and won the C flight with women’s doubles partner Emily Zhou.
Persson won two of the four singles matches he participated in.
Competition at this event was pretty tough, Marshall indicated, noting it attracted 119 entries from Saskatchewan to B.C.
Persson said it wasn’t easy for he and his mom to prevail in the B flight.
“It was a battle,” he said. “Me and my mom played really well through the entire thing. We didn't have a necessarily easy draw, but we fought through it and got to the end and won.”
The final three-game set against a duo from Edmonton was especially challenging – at least initially.
“The last two were easier because we found a strategy (that worked),” Persson said.
“The guy that we were playing against had really good court coverage, so we needed to hit some tricky shots against the girl to make her move to win.”
Although he lost two of his four single games, Persson is philosophical about that.
“I felt my singles was very good and the guys I lost to deserve the win because they played really well against me,” he said.
