Mixed doubles success sparked a day of mixed fortunes for the home contingent at badminton's Scottish International Grand Prix yesterday but after winning and losing in the semi-finals, the elder statesman of the Scottish game reckoned the nation's badminton health has never been better.

Playing along with Imogen Bankier at The Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Robert Blair's afternoon got off to the ideal start as they defeated Dutch pair Jacco Arends and Selena Piek 21-13, 21-16 to reach the final of the mixed doubles.

Although she had a rather more difficult passage, Kirsty Gilmour lived up to her second seeding by reaching the women's singles final and while there were disappointments for both Blair and Bankier in the men's and women's doubles semi-finals later in the afternoon, the prospect of Scottish interest in two of today's finals bodes well.

"The men's doubles was essentially a bit of fun this week and the main focus was the mixed," said Blair, immediately after he and Malaysia's Bin Shen Tan had been squeezed out by Danish pair Anders Skaarup Rasmussen and Kim Astrup Sorensen.

"It's good that Imogen and I are at the top of our game at the moment, giving the youngsters something to look up to and the set up is good with the coaching and facilities and there's quite a good balance across the team.

"Kirsty's been superb too. In the last couple of years she's made great progress and in a couple of years time I think she'll be pushing for major honours in the game."

In many ways the evolution of his revived partnership with Bankier - against whom Piek enjoyed some revenge when she and Eefje Muskens beat the Scot and Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva in another hard-fought match - symbolises that of the team.

"We played for quite a few years so we had a good understanding. The dynamic of the partnership's changed a bit because she was quite young when we started together and I was a bit faster perhaps then," Blair explained, with a smile.

He believes the happy, competitive atmosphere being generated within the Scotland team is key to success and cited Gilmour as the perfect example.

"Kirsty has really shone through in the last few months," he said.

"She's really challenging against some of the top players in the world and her rise has been quite dramatic. Some of the others just need to get a few wins to get some confidence and they can really surprise a few people as well."

As she has had to do more than once this week, Gilmour showed some character in staving off a fightback from Spain's Beatriz Corrales, a clubmate of hers and Bankier's, playing in the professional French league at Chambly in Paris, to reach the women's singles final.

The 20-year-old Scottish champion had looked fairly comfortable in taking the opening set 21-10, but she struggled with the different effect of the drift in the hall at the start of the second to be 11-3 down at the mid-game interval.

While she could not quite claw it back in that set she halved the leeway in losing it 21-17 and regained sufficient momentum to assert herself at the start of the decider, going on to win it 21-16.

"We're really good friends, but it was our first meeting so I'm really happy to get through it. Everyone gets on really well at the club and it can make it trickier when it's someone you are friendly with, but when you get on court it's business," she said.

Gilmour now meets Carolina Marin in a re-match of the final at last month's London Grand Prix Gold tournament when the Scot was beaten 21-19, 21-9.