Carlisle’s badminton star Lauren Smith, and her mixed doubles partner Marcus Ellis, claimed a magnificent win in the Thailand Masters last weekend.

The sixth seeds for the event overcame Indonesia’s Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja and Hafiz Faizal - seeded two places above them - in a deciding game, as they ran out 21-16 13-21 21-16 winners.

It was the first time an English pair have ever won the event and marks a fantastic start to 2020 for the duo, with Smith rating their first Super 300 title as one of her best to date.

“It’s definitely up there in my list of achievements,” said a delighted Smith. “We’ve won a few Super 100 titles but previously lost in three Super 300 finals, so it feels great to finally get over the line!

“To win the competition in Asia, when the standard was especially high, means a lot too.”

The pair won the opening game, having maintained the lead in it throughout, but in the second game, the momentum swung, and the Indonesian pair took it by a comfortable eight points.

It looked as though the match was slipping away from the English pair, but Smith was not too worried.

“We’d already come through two three-set matches, so knew not to stress,” she said.

“To regroup we recapped our tactics with our coach Anthony Clarke when he came on in the break, got our energy back up, and focused on dictating every rally we could.”

And that is exactly what they did in the deciding game, determined not to be denied, as they raced to a 6-0 lead, which put them in a dominant position that they did not relinquish.

Smith was recently nominated for the Badminton Europe Confederation 2019 Female Player Of The Year Award, and this win underlines why she is rated so highly.

It has put the pair in good spirits, and they will surely hope to build on this victory, in their bid to win a coveted Olympic medal, although Smith is not thinking that far ahead just yet.

“We are certainly always aiming to improve,” she said. “We have worked hard in the training block we had over Christmas to progress our game, and last week showed that it has paid off.

“We will continue to do this and be hungry to climb the rankings.”