KIRSTY GILMOUR, Britain's leading women's singles player, lost in the first round of the Yonex All England Open Championships in Birmingham yesterday, going down 21-15, 21-6 to Saina Nehwal, the Indian No.7 seed, in a mere 32 minutes.
There was further disappointment for the Scottish contingent when Robert Blair and Imogen Bankier were beaten in the mixed doubles and Bankier also lost in the women's doubles.
Gilmour, 20, struggled from start to finish on the big stage although she was insistent that the scoreline was not reflective of her performance.
"I don't think I played my best and I made some silly errors, which is very frustrating," Gilmour said. "But I don't think the score was really an accurate reflection of the game; it was closer than it looked.
"I just need to shore up my game a bit because it was a matter of inches that cost me; it is fine margins at this level."
Blair and Bankier, who won the German Open title last week, were defeated by the South Koreans Baek Choel Shin and Hye Won Eom in just 36 minutes, although it might have been different had the Scottish duo not lost a close first set 21-19, before going down 21-12 in the second. "We had our chances in the first set which we didn't take," Bankier said.
"It's always difficult when you do well then have to come home, wash, re-pack and go again, especially being on first thing, but the best players in the world do that week in, week out."
Bankier returned for the women's doubles with the Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva but they lost to Indonesia's Suci Rizky Andini and Tiara Rosalia Nuraidah 11-21, 21-16, 21-17 in 58 minutes."It wasn't our finest performance; we lost key points and gave away a lot of cheap points," Bankier added. "But I think we are progressing well as a pair. We've gone from nothing to being in the top four pairs in Europe."
n Tickets for the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships at the NIA in Birmingham are available at www.allenglandbadminton.com or call the box office on 0844 444 9994
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