Badminton: Blair and Tan scoop win in Birmingham

By ELSPETH BURNSIDE
Published on 07/03/2013 12:00

Edinburgh-born Robert 
Blair joined Malaysia’s Bin Shen Tan in a shock win in the men’s doubles at the Yonex All England Open in Birmingham.

Blair and Tan had battled through the qualifying event and in the first round main draw tie they came from behind to defeat Indonesia’s Alvent Yulianto Charndra and Markus Kido 17-21 ,21-19, 21-18.

They now face the unseeded Japanese pair of Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Havakawa for a place in the quarter-finals.

Longniddry’s Paul van Rietvelde and England’s Marcus Ellis had also come through two qualifying rounds, but they went out 15-21, 14-21 to Taiwan’s Sheng Mu Lee and Chia Hsen Tan.

In the women’s doubles, Glasgow’s Imogen Bankier and Petya Nedelcheva lost a close tussle against a top couple. Facing the No. 7 seeds, Kyung Eun Jung and Ha Na Kim, the Scot-Bulgarian partnership took the opening game 21-14, but the South Korean favourites hit back to take the second 21-18.

And Jung and Kim went on to win the third game 21-15 and claim the last-16 spot.