Imogen Bankier and Robert Blair provided their now standard finale to big days of badminton at the Emirates Arena when they successfully defended their Scottish Open Grand Prix mixed doubles title tonight.

Having won Scotland's biggest badminton tournament a year ago they provided another night to remember on the penultimate day of the Commonwealth Games in August when they finished that day's play by claiming their bronze medal and they made sure that home supporters had something to cheer once again tonight.

Having had little court time this season after what had been a fearsome schedule in the first half of the year, they played better as the week went on and continued that pattern in the final, edging Denmark's Niclas Nohr and Sara Thygesen out in the opening set before taking control in the second to run out 21-18, 21-14 winners.

"We had success here last year and then obviously the Commonwealths holds lots of good memories for us, so then to come back is really, really nice," said Bankier.

"It's a great place to play and a lot of players are attracted to come here because it's such a nice venue. It's definitely becoming one of our favourites."

Her partner, who has admitted to having considered retirement after what he had described as the highlight of his career in his August, heartily echoed those sentiments.

"It was fantastic support at the Commonwealths," he said.

"It's quite staggering. You can't believe they're cheering you and watching you play. Today has brought that back when there was a great atmosphere and a big crowd in again. Those are really special days when you're playing in an event like this."

Ahead of the weekend there had been hopes of Scottish involvement in as many as three of yesterday's finals so it was little consolation to Kirsty Gilmour who had gone into the women's singles as top seed and been third seeded with Bankier in the final but the women who knocked her out of both competitions in the semi-finals proved that they were the form players in their respective events in emphatic fashion.

Japan's Sayaka Sato got the better of second seed Beatriz Corrales in the opening game before trouncing her in the second to claim a 21-18, 21-9 win in the day's opening match, while Bulgaria's Stoeva sisters crushed English pair Heather Olver and Lauren Smith 21-7, 21-15 in the women's doubles.

The men's doubles was also a fairly one-sided affair with sixth seeded Danish pair Mathias Christiansen and David Daugaard overturning the rankings to beat Germans Raphael Beck and Andreas Heinz 21-13, 21-17.

However the men's singles was a different matter, with Ville Lang, who won this event when it was still the Scottish International eight years ago, proving a popular winner as he rolled back the years to claim a fine comeback win against Chinese Taipei teenager Tzu Wei Wang.

The 29-year-old, heavily-bearded Finn who looks every bit the Viking invader and brings theatricality to the court, seemed to have missed his chance when he faced four match points in the second set after losing the opener, but he used every ounce of experience to turn things around.

"I used the oldest trick in my book," he revealed afterwards.

"He was 20-16 up and I acted as if I had given up already. I look like I'm not trying any more even though I'm playing the best badminton I can. I have done that so many times to many opponents and they let their guard down a little bit and they can't finish that one rally. I'm still very lucky though. It's difficult to win four points in a row against that level of player."

The passing of time means he can appreciate this success more than when he won at the Kelvin Hall in 2006.

"At that time I didn't feel like I was dead after every rally," said Lang. "Then I was still a young boy and I could do anything I wanted. Now it's totally different. I definitely felt the difference this morning when I tried to get out of bed. It's so hard to recover now.

"I know I don't have five or 10 years any more so any time I play one match well I am very high and this is my first Grand Prix ever so I can't be more happy. It's by far the biggest victory I have ever had."