Scotland's badminton players face a real test this week as some of the world's rising stars set their sights on winning their first title at the Scottish International Championships in Glasgow.

Leading the way is top men's singles seed Chou Tien Chen, who is chasing a title hat-trick at the Emirates Arena after victories at the Bitburger Open and Norwegian International in the last two weekends. Those victories are likely to lift the Chinese-Taipei player into the world's top 30 when the new rankings come out on Thursday - and Malaysian second seed Tan Chun Seang is right behind him after finishing runner-up in Oslo yesterday.

Scotland's Yonex National champion Kieran Merrilees is in the same quarter as Chou after the tournament has attracted its strongest entry for several years.

Two more Norwegian winners are bringing their title form to Glasgow. Women's singles winner Sashina Vignes Waran of France and Dutch men’s doubles star Ruud Bosch are in the line-up along with Oslo mixed doubles runner-up Michael Fuchs, who is top seed in the men’s doubles with Oliver Roth (pictured) and seventh seed in the mixed with Isabel Herttrich.

Waran is eighth seed in Glasgow, one below Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour, who beat the French player in the final of the Czech Open to land one of her three titles on the European circuit so far this season.

Scotland's Paul Van Rietvelde and England's Marcus Ellis lead the home challenge in the men's doubles as fourth seeds while Gilmour and Jillie Cooper are sixth seeds in the women's doubles.

Cooper is also sixth seed in the mixed doubles with Robert Blair and the Edinburgh pair are on course to meet Bitburger winners Anders Kristiansen and Julie Houmann in the quarter-finals while top seeds Ellis and Gabby White should be barring the path in the semi-finals.

A total of 296 players from 32 nations have entered for Glasgow, with all five continents represented.

This is the first Scottish International Championships to be held at the Emirates Arena after 20 years at the Kelvin Hall. But the Play Badminton Carnivals which were such a feature of the Kelvin Hall era will continue at the Emirates, with Scotland star Imogen Bankier and recently-retired Olympic team-mate Susan Egelstaff joining the schoolchildren eager to improve or learn the game on the training courts in the Velodrome. A total of 3,000 schoolchildren are expected to take part in the Carnival under the guidance of Scotland's top junior coaches.
 
Tickets are still on sale for the Scottish International Championships and you can pay on the door at the Emirates Arena box office.

All action of the Scottish International will be shown live on BETV.

Article by BADMINTONscotland, Photo by BadmintonPhoto.