Robert Blair and Imogen Bankier got their Scottish Open Grand Prix title challenge under way at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow today. The fifth seeds, who won the title together in 2007, overcame France’s Baptiste Careme and Anne Tran but needed three games to do it before winning 21-13 17-21 21-9.
That earned them a second-round clash tomorrow with Australia’s former England player Robin Middleton and partner Tang He Tian.
Bankier and Bulgaria’s Petya Nedelcheva, who are top seeds in the women’s doubles and received a first-round bye, begin their challenge in the second round tomorrow against Lena Grebak and Maria Helsbøl of Denmark.
But Blair was in action a second time on day two when he and Malaysian partner Tan Bin Shen played Ireland’s Jonathan Dolan and Sam Magee in the men’s doubles first round and they won an evening tussle 21-14 21-18 to earn a second-round clash with second seeds Lukasz Moren and Wojciech Szkudlarczyk after the Poles defeated Austria’s Jürgen Koch and Denmark’s Christian Lind 21-13 21-14.
Kirsty Gilmour started her title challenge with a solid 21-10 21-8 win over Czech player Zuzana Pavelkova. The 20-year-old second seed from Bothwell, who last month reached the final of the London Grand Prix, will now face American Zhang Beiwen tomorrow morning.
But top seed Carolina Martin, the Spanish No. 1 who defeated Gilmour in the London final, was made to work before beating Denmark’s Mette Poulsen 20-22 21-17 21-16.
And third seed Petya Nedelcheva survived a scare when she had to save a match point at 20-19 against Germany’s Karin Schnaase before winning 21-18 12-21 22-20 against an opponent who had never taken a game off the Bulgarian in their five previous meetings.
The women’s singles lost one seed when American Jamie Subandhi went out 21-10 21-12 against Denmark’s Sandra-Maria Jensen.
In the men’s singles Scotland’s Kieran Merrilees, the 14th seed from Glasgow, moved into the third round with a 22-20 21-14 win over England’s Sam Phillips and now faces Malaysian Chan Kwong Beng, who knocked out Ireland’s seventh seed Scott Evans 28-26 21-19.
Top seed Ville Lang of Finland edged out Erik Meijs 21-19 21-16 and now faces another Dutchman Vincent De Vries in the last 16 but Sweden’s second seed Henri Hurskainen was taken all the way by England’s Ben Beckman before winning 21-18 19-21 21-17.
Scotland’s teenage prospect Josh Neil saw his Open run come to an end but he put up a good display against Indonesian eighth seed Andre Kurniawan Tedjono 21-16 21-18.
The pick of the other Scottish performances came from Edinburgh’s Martin Campbell and Jillie Cooper. They put up a strong display against Denmark’s 2011 winner Kim Astrup and new partner Maria Helsbøl before losing 21-19 22-24 21-15.
Chief Executive and Tournament Director Anne Smillie said: “It has been another splendid day of competition and the 1,600 youngsters attending the Play Badminton Festival in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome had the chance to see some of Scotland’s Commonwealth Games hopefuls in action as well as improving their own game under the watchful eye of our top coaches.”
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Article and Photo by Peter Dean, Badminton Scotland.