Badminton Europe asked some of the European stars and talents to share their biggest disappointment. 

Selena Piek:
Becoming severely injured after Rio 2016. It took a really long time for me to get back to my previous level and to feel the joy of playing again. It was a very dark period for me personally where I learned a lot, but I’d rather never go through that phase again.

Milan Dratva:
My biggest disappointment would be the quarterfinal loss in Iran earlier this year - the first time I actually believed I could win the whole tournament. I lost in three games against the eventual winner, fought hard to get back into the match in the second game, but could not maintain the momentum for the third game.

Kristin Kuuba:
After winning that bronze at the European Junior Championships, one week later we lost in the Estonian championships in women’s double against our local competitors. This loss comes first to my mind as a disappointing moment.

Toby Penty:
My biggest disappointment would be not converting one of those first six finals into a tournament win earlier than I did at senior level. Winning a tournament gives you so much more confidence than any amount of training you can do. I feel if I had of done that at a slightly younger age, I could have made one or two bigger pushes earlier.

Vimala Heriau:
My biggest disappointment is our defeat against Korea at the World Junior Championships team event in the quarterfinals. We lost 3-2 with two matches going to 3 games - it was so close, but we missed a World Junior medal that day. It will forever be a really hard and disappointing moment.

Ruben Jille:
My biggest disappointment has probably been the Dutch Open in 2018. We had prepared well and felt great in the tournament before wasting match points in the quarterfinal against the eventual champions from Indonesia. A match that still hurts.

Jordan Hart:
My biggest disappointment was breaking my ankle in the last week of summer training when I was younger and having to have an operation to fix it, which put back my development by around 18 months to two years

Ben Lane:
My biggest disappointment is probably at the French Open where I was so close to being in the semifinals but lost both quarterfinals I played. 

Adam Hall:

My biggest disappointment in badminton is a hard one. I have been mostly satisfied with my career so far. I think the worst I have felt after losing a match was when Peter Mills and I lost the Scottish Open final in a close match against Christiansen and Daugaard. I felt awful after that one, really felt like I had missed my chance to take the win and was not sure I was going to get another.

Ksenia Polikarpova:
To lose in the quarterfinal at European Games 2015 to Petya Nedelcheva in three games - it was my chance for a ‘real’ medal. Also, the loss to Mia Blichfeldt at the 2nd European Games too - in the end, I was just afraid to be the winner and could not take this chance.

Alex Dunn:
I guess I don’t have one particular moment of disappointment that stands out, but I think there was a period after the World Championships in 2018 where during the Worlds we showed a great level but afterwards there was a string of tournaments where we struggled to find any sort of form and it was a worrying time of how we are going to get past this. I felt it just put a lot of negativity and doubt in my head towards badminton.

Toma Junior Popov:
My biggest disappointment is to lose my two quarterfinals at the World Junior Championships and the doubles I lost in Liévin at the European Men’s Team Championships against the Netherlands. Also, when I injured myself in September and started too late in the Olympic qualification.