Individual events get underway in Birmingham
Scotland got day one of the individual events off to a great start at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games yesterday.
In the men’s singles, Callum Smith got his campaign off to a flier when he beat Dwayne Merch of the Falkland Islands 21-3 21-4 in the first round to set up a clash with Ghanaian Kelvin Alphous on Thursday at 11.00hrs on court 2.
The winner of that tie can look forward to a probable match against England’s sixth seed Toby Penty on Friday.
Julie MacPherson and Ciara Torrance also faced opposition from the Falkland’s in their opening women’s doubles.
The Scots beat Laura Harada and Louise Williams 21-4 21-5 but will face a much more difficult second round against Canadian third seeds Rachel Honderich and Kirsten Tsai, who beat them in the group stages of the Mixed Team event earlier in the Games.
In the mixed doubles Chris Grimley and Eleanor O’Donnell beat Zaki Shaheed and Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq of the Maldives 21-8 21-9 to set up a second round tie against South Africa’s Jarred Elliott and Deirdre Jordaan on the show court, scheduled to start at midday today.
Fourth seeds MacPherson and Adam Hall get their mixed doubles campaign started today on court 2 on Thursday with the match against Julien Paul and Kobita Dookhee of Mauritius, with the match scheduled for 18.00hrs.
Grimley and his brother Matt begin their men’s doubles campaign against Zaki Shaheed and Rishwan Shiyam of Mauritius today at 13.30hrs but the twins have been unlucky with their draw. If they win their first round match they will face top seeds Teng Chia and Wooi Soh of Malaysia in the second round.
Scottish interest in the badminton will be rounded off this evening when third seed Kirsty Gilmour faces Australian Tiffany Ho on the show court, scheduled for 18.30hrs.
In the mixed team event which preceded the individual events, Scotland reached the quarter-finals before being knocked out by eventual bronze medallists Singapore.
The Scots recorded good wins against Uganda (4-1) and Maldives (5-0) but a close 3-2 defeat to Canada meant a second place finish in Group C and a difficult quarter-final against Singapore.
Please note that the times mentioned are the scheduled ones, but could be subject to delays.
Results, match schedules and other information can be found at https://www.birmingham2022.com/