Badminton: Cooper and Blair through

Edinburgh’s Jillie Cooper and Longniddry’s Robert Blair made a perfect start as a mixed doubles partnership when they won two matches and made it through the qualifying at the Yonex All England Badminton Open in Birmingham.

The Scots beat a leading Chinese pair, Wei Hong and Pen Pan, 21-16, 21-16, and followed up with a 21-17, 19-21, 21-8 win over Taiwan’s Yu Lang Lin and Pei Chen Hsiem.

Next up for the pair is the unseeded Indonesian couple, Muhammad Rijal and Debby Susanto.

But Scottish Champion Susan Egelstaff, the British No. 1, suffered a disappointing exit in the first round of qualifying for the women’s singles. The Glasgow 29-year-old, ranked No. 39 in the world, was expected to make the 32-strong main draw but she went out 17-21, 8-21 to Indonesia’s Maria Febe Kusumastuti.

In the men’s doubles qualifying, Longniddry’s Paul van Rietvelde and England’s Marcus Ellis lost 12-21, 18-21 to Malaysia’s Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif and Mohd Fairuzizuan.