Scotland's Susan Egelstaff has been given a decent draw in the pool matches for the women's singles at her first Olympic Games in London next week, writes Elspeth Burnside.
The Glasgow 29-year-old came out of the hat in the same Pool H as the No.12 seed Sayako Sato (Japan) and Slovenia's Maja Tvrdy, who is ranked No.89 in the world. There are 16 pools, with the winners from each one going forward to a knock-out phase. Egelstaff is ranked No.38 in the world.
In the mixed doubles, Glasgow's Imogen Bankier and her English partner, Chris Adcock, weren't quite so lucky. The medal hopefuls are in Group A headed by the Chinese world champions and the No.1 seeds, Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei.
Also in the group are the Russian world No.15 pair, Alexandr Nikolaenko and Valeri Sorokina, and the Germans Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels, who are ranked 22 in the world. But Bankier and Adcock, silver medallists behind Zhang and Zhao at last year's world championships, have nothing really to fear.
The top two couples from each group go through to the quarter-finals and the British world No.10 pair have beaten Zhang and Zhao twice this year. "It is good that the competition starts off with pool matches," said Bankier. "It gives us time to settle in. But they will all be tough matches."
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