The annual pre Christmas rush around Great Britain and Ireland kicks off this week as the Badminton Europe circuit moves to Glasgow for the Scottish International which will kick off on Wednesday in the fantastic new Emirates Stadium the home of the Commonwealth Games badminton tournament in 2014.

In the absence of Imogen Bankier, Kirsty Gilmour will shoulder the weight of expectation of the home support as she bids to add her home International to her hat trick of victories at the Polish, Czech and Swiss Internationals.
Gilmour has without doubt been one of the star players this season on tour but she will certainly not have things her own way with some tough opposition on her side of the draw. Top seed and favourite will be Bulgaria’s Petya Nedelcheva but watch out for Germany’s Olga Konon who is back on tour after undergoing knee surgery after the European Team Championships back in February where she was instrumental at second singles behind Juliane Schenk.

In the bottom half of the draw Sashina Vignes Waran will look to continue her run of excellent early season form and will be many people’s favourite to lift the title after winning last week in Norway.

The men’s singles has a very Asian feel to the top half of the seedings but third seeded, Pablo Abian, from Spain will look to improve on what has been a disappointing start to his season. Eric Pang, still buoyed by his win at the Dutch Open GP in October, will offer stiff resistance to the top seeds and others certainly to watch out for are Denmark’s Rune Ulsing and fourth seed Brice Leverdez of France. (In the meantime Leverdez withdrew)

Fuchs and Roth will look to overturn last week’s defeat

The men’s doubles will see top seeded Germans Fuchs and Roth have the opportunity to put the disappointment of last week’s trip to Olso behind them where they were beaten by eventual winners Bosch and Ridder of the Netherlands. This week Ruud Bosch teams up with Josche Zurwonne of Germany and Fuchs and Roth will look to overturn last week’s defeat to the Dutch veteran as both pairs are seeded t meet at semi finals stage in Glasgow. Team England have sent a strong contingent to Glasgow this week and Chris Langridge and Peter Mills will look to make an impact but the ones to watch in the bottom half of the draw are without doubt the Danish duo of Bonde and Conrad as we are most familiar seeing these guys apply their trade at Super Series level.

The women’s doubles is very open with added interest from both Korea and Japan but the favourites have to be the English based Ng sisters who lifted three titles on the European circuit in a tough Olympic term last season and will be looking to go one better than their runners up spot from last year’s Scottish International. Gabby White and Lauren Smith will harbour England’s best chance and the Scottish fans are sure to be out in force to support Jillie Cooper, who is overdue a tour victory, as she accompanies young gun Kirsty Gilmour as sixth seeds for the tournament.

Ellis & White in on of their last tournaments together

Finally the mixed doubles will see Marcus Ellis accompany Gabby White for one of their last tournaments together as a pair after it was announced that White will partner fiancé Chris Adcock from January 2013. The English duo are top seeds but Danish duo of Anders Kristiansen and Julie Houmann (pictured) will fully expect to take the title back to Denmark as they continue to sprint towards the business end of the world rankings in their developing partnership. The Danes recently won the Bitburger Open Grand Prix Gold and in just 5 tournaments together have risen to 42 in the world rankings with a series of good results at Super Series level.

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Article by Mark Phelan Image courtesy of Badminton Photo.