Gilmour, MacPherson and Torrance top seeds for the Scottish Open Badminton Championships
Kirsty Gilmour will start as favourite to win the women’s singles at the Scottish Open, being staged at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena from 20-23 November 2025.
The 32-year-old will be aiming to secure a hat-trick of titles, having last played the Scottish Open in 2018, where she won the second of her back-to-back trophies.
Her opening match is on Friday 21 November against Sophia Noble from Ireland, while Rachel Sugden faces a tough first round match against Bulgarian fifth seed Kaloyana Nalbantova.
Julie MacPherson and Ciara Torrance are the other top seeded Scots and start their women’s doubles campaign with a bye before facing the winners of Spanish duo Paula Lopez and Lucia Rodriguez and Indonesians Nabila Cahya Permata Ayu and Nahya Muhyifa.
Fellow Scots Ishbel McCallister and Brooke Stalker also start with a bye, while Jody Barrall and England’s Anne Hubscher face a Danish pair in the first round.
MacPherson will also be aiming to challenge for the honours in the mixed doubles with Alex Dunn.
Last year’s mixed doubles champions are second seeds this year, behind Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch from Denmark.
They have only faced each other once in the past, in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Hylo Open where Dunn and MacPherson triumphed on their way to the final of that event.
But in the men’s doubles, Dunn and his partner Adam Pringle face a tough task if they want to emulate their semi-final appearance at last year’s Scottish Open.
They face an opening match against Anselmus Breagit Fredy Prasetya and Pulung Ramadhan, a talented Indonesian pair who reached the last 16 of the BWF World Junior Championships last year.
The winners of that match will play Danish top seeds and 2023 champions Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard.
Christopher and Matthew Grimley are second seeds in the men’s doubles, having reached the semi-finals last year. The 2021 champions have never beaten top seeds Lundgaard and Vestergaard and last faced them in 2024 at the Orleans Masters.
In men’s singles, Callum Smith will face Dane Viktor Kauffman in the first round, with a potential match up for the victor against German seventh seed Matthias Kicklitz in round 2.
“Today’s draws really whet the appetite for the Scottish Open Badminton Championships,” said Badminton Scotland CEO Alan McMillan.
“There will be some outstanding badminton on display and Scotland has genuine medal chances in four events, with our players top seeds in the women’s singles and women’s doubles, and second seeds in the men’s and mixed doubles.
“There are also some really exciting young Scots competing this year and I hope the badminton community will descend on the Emirates Arena en masse to show their support.
“Tickets for the qualifying rounds on Thursday 20 November are free of charge for members of Badminton Scotland – we want to have as many people as possible cheering on our homegrown players.”
Smith is the only Scot in the main draw of the men’s singles, but Matthew Waring will aim to go one better than last year in qualifying, where he just missed out on reaching the main draw, falling at the final hurdle having scored two outstanding three-game wins in the first two rounds of qualifying.
A host of other Scots are in the qualifying rounds, which will all be played on Thursday 20 November, and members of Badminton Scotland are entitled to free tickets on Thursday and half-price discounts on all other tickets, so if you want to get down to the Emirates to cheer on the home players then secure your tickets today.
James Robertson, Ganesh Balaji, Finlay Jack, Shaun Aamir and Sen Thomas are the other Scots in action in the men’s singles qualifying, with Vibha Raman competing in the women’s singles qualifying.
Lanna Campbell and Katie Stewart are second qualifying seeds in the women’s doubles, so will be hopeful of making their way into the main draw.
They start with a match against fellow Scots Gemma Foulis and Pranavi Singh, while Amy Craig and Sophie Ford and Anshita Jaiswal and Chloe Mackenzie are also in the women’s doubles qualifying.
Evan Kenny and Josh Taylor, Callum Crangle and Calum Flockhart, Mark Leith and Torben Trapp will take to the courts on 20 November in the men’s doubles qualifying, and in mixed doubles Pringle and Brooke Stalker will hope to reach the main draw.
A host of elite athletes from around the world will descend on Glasgow’s Emirates Arena from 20-23 November for the Scottish Open Badminton Championships.
The third oldest open tournament in the world has attracted a bumper entry this year of 355 players from 39 countries and all six continents, with players from as far afield as Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia travelling to Glasgow.
The Scottish Open Badminton Championships is staged by Badminton Scotland at the Emirates Arena with support from the City of Glasgow and VICTOR Sport.
Tickets are on sale here: Scottish Open Badminton Championships tickets
The draws can be viewed here: Scottish Open Badminton Championships draws