Both Merrilees (pictured above) and Carder looked in control in their opening rounds with both winning in two games while Newall battled through two rounds of qualification to claim one of the four spots on offer in the women’s singles main draw. 

There was no joy for the Grimley twins who came up against stiff Chinese opposition in the final round of the men’s doubles qualification with the twins unable to repeat their qualification feat of 2015 in the men’s doubles. There was some icing on the cake however for Christopher Grimley who did claim one of the men’s singles early in the day but that was as good as it got for the Scot who fell to Nick Fransman later in the day in the main draw first round. 

With only the men’s singles main draw in action in the evenings play the majority of the crowd hung around to the bitter end to see Anders Antonsen take to the courts and the Danish starlet didn’t hold back as he stretched his legs for the first time in the Emirates Arena. 

Antonsen took little time and effort seeing off the challenge of David Jones and based on the evidence from round one is the hot favourite to lift the title which would be his first Grand Prix success on his journey to the world’s top 10. 



In the mixed doubles qualification there was some serious talent on show from players we are more used to seeing in main draws and the business end of tournaments. 

New Danish duo Mathias Christiansen and Sara Thygesen were taken to three games before getting it over the line against decent Chinese opposition and Raphael Beck and Carla Nelte (pictured above) were more comfortable against Austrian duo Stipsits and Baldauf. Both the Germans and the Danes could be real contenders come the medal ceremony on Sunday. 

To revisit all the action from today’s play on court 1 go to Badminton Europe’s YouTube channel by click HERE

For all results from day 1 at the 2016 Scottish Open Click HERE

Article and Images by Mark Phelan (Live in Glasgow)