London 2012 Olympians Imogen Bankier and Rajiv Ouseph both suffered opening-day defeats at the World Badminton Championships – but it wasn’t all bad for Britain.
Bankier, who won mixed doubles silver with Chris Adcock at the last World Championships in London in 2011, lost in the first round of the women’s doubles with Petya Nedelcheva.
The Scottish-Bulgarian duo fell 18-21, 21-28, 21-16 to Saralee Thoungthongkam and Narissapat Lam of Thailand with Ouseph also an early faller in the men’s singles draw.
Ouseph lost 21-11, 21-15 to Malaysian 15th seed Wei Feng Chong in round one but English teammate Toby Penty progressed after seeing off America Howard Shu 21-16, 21-16.
Penty received a wildcard to the last World Championships in London and now faces Germany’s 11th seed and European champion Marc Zwiebler in round two in China.
Gabby White and Lauren Smith produced England’s second win by defeating Aparna Balan and N Siki Reddy of India in their first round women’s doubles clash 21-15, 21-17.
They face Chinese seventh seeds Yixin Bao and Qianxin Zhong, who had a first-round bye, next up while Heather Olver suffered both victory and defeat on day one in Guangzhou.
First she lost to Swedish pair Nico Ruponen and Amanda Hogstrom in round one of the mixed doubles with Chris Langridge but recovered with Kate Robertshaw in the women’s.
© Sportsbeat 2013