Cooper starts championship with super doubles win

Published on Friday 21 November 2008 08:55

EDINBURGH badminton star Jillie Cooper launched her Bank of Scotland International Championship campaign with a doubles victory at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow.

The 20-year-old joined her new English partner, Mariana Agathangelou, in a 21-14, 21-14 win over Glasgow sisters, Linda and Gillian Sloan. They now take on England's Sarah Walker and Samantha Ward for a place in the quarter-finals.

Cooper is seeded No.3 in the mixed doubles with Renfrew's Watson Briggs and they were set to launch their bid for glory today against fellow-Scots Calum Menzies and Frances Heslop.

In the first day of singles, Lothian youngsters Paul Van Rietvelde and Martin Campbell both had their chances to make the last 32 before bowing out.

Rietvelde led 10-1 against Glasgow's rising star, Kieran Merrilees, but lost 20-22, 9-21, while Edinburgh's Campbell, the Bank of Scotland Under-19 Champion, succumbed 19-21, 21-16, 18-21 to England's Ian Mercer.

"I was a bit sluggish at first and I maybe underestimated my opponent," Merrilees said of his match against Longniddry's Van Rietvelde.

"It also took me a while to get used to the hall."

Blagovest Kisyov now stands between Merrilees and a place in the final 16, but the Bulgarian's request to move today's match forward so that he has time to catch his flight home suggests he isn't too hopeful of victory.

"We were meant to be playing at 11.40am but I was quite happy to play at 10.15am to suit him," added Merrilees. "It certainly doesn't sound as though he is expecting to go through."

Kirsty Gilmour, the 15-year-old niece of Scottish Internationalist, David Gilmour, showed her great promise by staging a terrific victory over Canada's Valerie St Jacques in the first round of the women's singles.

The Bank of Scotland Scottish Under-19 Champion, Gilmour won a tight battle 21-19, 18-21, 21-17 and her reward is a last-32 tie against Croatia's Stasa Posnanovik. Scot Susan Hughes, the No.2 seed, had a first-round bye.