Scottish badminton's big three returned to the Emirates Arena with a clear determination to build on the successes they have enjoyed at the venue over the past year.

On an otherwise difficult day for the home competitors, Kirsty Gilmour - she is the top seed, having been the beaten finalist a year ago - eased her way past the American Rong Schafer 21-15, 21-17 in the first round of the women's singles, while Imogen Bankier and Robert Blair made similarly straightforward progress as they began their defence of the mixed doubles title against England's Matthew Clare and Devon Minnis 21-7, 21-13.

As the old man of the team, it was Blair who had the toughest schedule of the trio, partly because he, like Gilmour, has been suffering from a heavy cold, but also because he had two first-round matches to contest. He also won in the men's doubles in a new partnership with the up and coming youngster Adam Hall, beating England's Conor Bambrick and Thomas Stanford 21-17, 21-10.

"I've not had too much training in the last few days, but it's cleared up over the week enough that I could get out on court and do something quickly and get a lot of rest to recover. I don't sound too good but I'm feeling a bit better inside," he said after the second of the day's successes.

"We were lucky we had quite easy ones [ties] to come into [the competition] so I wasn't using up too much energy which should help me going on when, I suspect, we have to play at a higher tempo tomorrow."

Now 33, he has admitted that since the Commonwealth Games - he and Bankier were disappointed not to reach the final but finished on a high by winning their bronze medal decider - he had bene giving serious consideration as to whether to continue competing.

"It did take a little while after the Commonwealths because it was such a big focus and we were lucky that we got to go to a few sporting events on the back of it and enjoy ourselves with a bit of time off, but you do go back on court and remind yourself that you like doing this too and you miss that," he said.

"This is one of the first tournaments we're getting back into so we'll see if the old feelings come back to us quickly."

Returning to a venue which houses so many good memories has done no harm, however. "When you're playing in good arenas and have good experiences you're always happy to come back," said Blair. "With the Commonwealths having been here and last year's Scottish Open which was also a fantastic event we get so much good support here, it's such a nice venue and being at home you're always delighted to come and play.

"You just want to put your best on and give people something to cheer about."

Curiously, on a day when 17 matches involved Scots, it was almost a demonstration of the Commonwealth Games medallists' capacity to inspire the next generation that two of them were on court when the day's only other home victory was achieved in the men's doubles. Youngsters Josh Neil and Ben Torrance were playing adjacently to Bankier and Blair as they swept England's Farim Akroum and George Isherwood aside 21-9, 21-13.