It is a man's world, we are often reminded.

Well, if there is one area where this aphorism does not apply, it is in Scottish badminton. For some 20 years, it has been the female players who have won medals, competed in the Olympics and grabbed headlines. However, Kieran Merrilees, who plays his first-round match in the Scottish Open Grand Prix against a qualifier this evening, is ready to change all that.

The 24-year-old Glaswegian has been Scotland's No.1 men's singles player for several years but has yet to make a significant mark on the international scene. Now, after four years blighted by injury - Merrilees estimates that he has lost around one year of training time in that period - he feels ready to step up to the mark.

"This time last year I snapped my rib and then when I came back I had problems with my knees because I'd been out for so long," he said. "But I had a good summer of training and I feel my level has improved. My top level is still not good enough to compete at a world level but my consistency has got better because I've not been injured over the last few months."

Merrilees is part of the Great Britain badminton programme based in Milton Keynes, and is the British No.2 men's singles player behind Raj Ouseph, who competed in the 2012 Olympics. Merrilees has trained at the national centre, full-time, for two years and puts much of his improvement down to it.

While several of Merrilees' compatriots have shunned the national centre, he believes it is the best place for him to improve. "I think I could train in Scotland but, at the moment, training in Milton Keynes is working for me. I feel I've matured over the last couple of years and become much more mentally strong, which is so important for men's singles players," he said.

Merrilees' inconsistency has long been his Achilles heel, with victories over top-50 players followed by losses to players ranked lower than himself. Yet he feels this is an area of his game which has improved considerably this season. "My work ethic is better and I'm training smarter," he said. "My results are much more consistent than they have been which has improved my confidence."

Merrilees has not chosen the easy option in becoming a men's singles player: the discipline is, by some distance, the toughest on the circuit because of the abundance of Asian players. Merrilees is ranked in the top 20 in Europe but his world ranking is only 75. He has, though, beaten several top-50 players this season and has set his sights on improving his world ranking in the hope of securing one of the eight seeded places at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next year.

"If I can get a seeded spot in Glasgow, it'll make such a difference. Once you get to the quarter-finals, anything can happen and I hope that home advantage can help me."

Merrilees is one of the most talented players Scotland has produced and is considerably better than most other men's singles players in the country. Why is the gap is so wide? "I think a lot of players opt to play doubles at a young age these days because there's a better chance of getting success," he said. "If I was 16 again, I would possibly consider playing doubles.

"You're out there on your own in singles whereas, in doubles, you've got someone to help pull you through. I think you have to be mentally stronger to be a singles player; when things aren't going well in singles, it's so tough."

The lack of strength in depth in Scottish men's singles is something Merrilees rues. "There used to be a good men's singles group, but now players stop playing so young," he said. "Players need to realise that, at 16 or 17, there's still so much time to get better. But when they come out of junior badminton, if they're not the No.1, then there's nowhere for them to go, which I think is unfair. There's still so much time to improve."

At the start of the season, Merrilees set himself the goal of winning a tournament on the European circuit. "I can beat some of the guys who are winning tournaments, but the hard thing is to beat them one after the other," he said. "I've got to win five hard matches in a row and I've found that difficult so far. But this is the time to start doing it."