Rajiv Ouseph revealed his ambition to reach the semi-finals at the London Grand Prix after winning his first match at the Copper Box Arena in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Ouseph, who failed to make it out of the group stages of the men’s singles at the London 2012 Olympics last summer, held at Wembley Arena, was given a bye into the second round.
And the 27-year-old, seeded fourth, beat Vitaly Konov of the Ukraine 21-12, 21-12 in his first match to progress to round three where he’ll face Hsu Jui Ting of Taipei.
Ting beat English teammate Rhys Walker to set up a clash with Ouseph, who is determined to perform to the level his seeding would suggest in London and reach at least the semi-finals.
“I’m obviously seeded to get that far, so it’s possible, but I just need to take it round by round,” said Ouseph, who won a sixth successive national title back in February.
“It was the first time I’ve played a match in the hall, so it was a bit difficult in the very beginning, just seeing how the shuttle flew around.
“So I was just trying to get used to it as much as possible. But after that I was quite comfortable from halfway through the first game.”
Elsewhere on day two of the London Grand Prix, Kirsty Gilmour won her women’s singles first-round clash with Simone Prutsch while Sarah Walker was given a walkover against Beiwen Zhang.
And, remaining with the women’s singles, Sarah Milne defeated English compatriot and qualifier Chloe Birch to reach round two – both having represented Team GB in Youth Olympic competitions.
© Sportsbeat 2013