Bello/Gleed and Keys/Morrison clinch London Grand Slam titles 

With brother Javier recovering from injury, Joaquin took the opportunity to maintain match sharpness by joining forces with Niko Gleed whose regular partner Enrique Bello is away studying in the United States. 

And despite the newness of the pairing, it was a combination that proved to be mightily effective at the Feel Good Too Centre, with both having masses of Beach Pro Tour experience on the world stage. 

After Friday's qualifiers, 16 teams in each gender were divided into pools of four teams to decide who would make it through to the knockout stages. 

A play-off round was also staged on Saturday, prior to Sunday's quarter-final, semi-final, bronze medal and gold medal matches. 

Number one seeds Bello and Gleed topped their pool to go straight through to the last eight and were joined by Stuart Perry and Theo Plaza, Ollie Tuck and Dorian Poinc and Jake Sanders and Bailey Slessor. 

Winning through the play-offs to book a quarter-final place were Ivo Dobra and Piero Müller, Ross McKelvie and James McHardy, Jan-Joost van der Bogert and Lewis Bunton and Endi Ymeraj and Andrea Maggio. 

In the quarters, Bello and Gleed were the only ones who have automatically advanced to make the semi-finals, beating Dobra and Müller 2-0 (21-15, 21-11). 

Scots McKelvie and McHardy defeated Tuck and Poinc in straight sets (21-15, 21-17), while van der Bogert and Bunton found their rhythm to oust Perry and Plaza (21-13, 21-18). 

The closest match, which went the distance, proved to be Ymeraj and Maggio's three-set nailbiter with Sanders and Slessor, where the latter eventually came through 23-25, 21-15, 15-11. 

Bello and Gleed were confident victors in the semis over McKelvie and McHardy (21-6. 21-13), but another three setter was required to decide their opponents, where van der Bogert and Bunton edged out Ymeraj and Maggio (18-21, 21-13, 15-11). 

The gold and bronze medal matches were both decided in two as Bello and Gleed clinched top place on the podium by seeing off the challenge of van der Bogert and Bunton (21-12, 21-13), while McKelvie and McHardy bounced back strongly from semi-final defeat to get the better of Ymeraj and Maggio (21-17, 23-21) after a competitive game. 

The women's tournament was no less exciting, where Scottish-based duo Keys and Morrison performed impressively to run out winners. 

The number three seeds cruised through to the quarter-finals on the back of successive straight sets succeses. 

That was in contrast to the number one and two seeds, Lynne Beattie and Mel Coutts and Anna Rantala and Kirsty Star, whose relative struggles meant they faced each other in a play-off to reach the last eight. 

Beattie and Coutts were beaten in their first match by Patricija Fila and Anna Kurek, while Rantala and Star lost their second pool game by the same 2-1 scoreline against Anna Bempedeli and Alana Snow. 

That meant one of those teams was destined to go through and one go out, with Rantala and Star eventually progressing 21-11, 19-21, 15-8. 

Also emerging from the play-offs to advance were Martha Mullen and Beth Morgan, Anne Kamanzi and Macy Poon and Francesca Billato and Ella Watson, joining the already-through Fila and Kurek, Gabriele Balysevaite and Charlotte Morgan and Bempedeli and Snow. 

In the quarter-finals, Fila and Kurek continued to show their opening victory over the top seeds was no fluke as they beat Bullen and Berth Morgan 2-0 (21-15, 21-16), while Billato and Watson overcame Balysevaite and Charlotte Morgan in straight sets (21-16, 21-19). 

Kamanzi and Poon won one of the closest and most fiercely-fought matches of the weekend as they got the better of Bempedeli and Snow 28-26, 23-21 before Keys and Morrison edged through against Rantala and Star (20-22, 23-21, 15-9) in another humdinger. 

Fila and Kurek were the first to book their final spot by winning their semi against Bellato and Watson with a degree of comfort (21-15, 21-12). Keys and Morrison, meanwhile, had no problems in defeating Kamanzi and Poon (21-12, 21-17). 

Like the men's, both gold and bronze medal matches were decided in two, with Keys and Morrison beating Kila and Kurek to secure first place (21-15, 21-19) and Billato and Watson taking third by getting the better of Kmanzi and Poon (21-8, 21-18). 

Images by Jon Cornish (@jcornishphoto)