Blair wins on disappointing day

Scotland's Robert Blair was the only British player to taste victory in the first round at the All England Open Championships in Birmingham.

The 31-year-old and his Malaysian partner Tan Bin Shen came from behind to beat Indonesia's Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Markis Kido 17-21 21-19 21-15 in 40 minutes at the National Indoor Arena.

The men's doubles success lifted home spirits on an otherwise disappointing day for the British competitors with six defeats across the disciplines.

England's top men's doubles pair Chris Adcock and Andy Ellis - ranked 23 in the world - produced a battling display against second seeds Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia but were edged out 21-19 24-22.

That ended a frustrating day for Adcock after earlier defeat in his mixed doubles challenge with fiancee Gabby White. The pair were beaten 21-14 21-18 by world number ones and top seeds Xu Chen and Ma Jin of China.

White, playing alongside 21-year-old Lauren Smith was also beaten in the women's doubles by one of the same opponents, losing 21-16 21-7 to Ma and Tang Jinhua, who were fifth seeds.

Adcock's former mixed partner Imogen Bankier, of Glasgow, was in action with Bulgaria's Petya Nedelcheva in the women's doubles but the pair exited 14-21 21-18 21-15 to seventh seeds Jung Kyung-eon and Kim Ha-na.

Chris Langridge and Peter Mills were thwarted after a second game fightback against Thailand's Maneepong Jongjit and Nipitphon Puangpuapech, losing 21-13 16-21 21-8.

The Anglo-Scottish men's doubles pairing of Marcus Ellis and Paul van Rietvelde were beaten 21-15 21-14 by Lee Sheng Mu and Tsai Chia Hsin of Chinese Taipei.

Blair's success seemed unlikely as he and Tan, his team-mate at a German, fell 11-8 behind in the second game.

But they dug in to level the match and they went on to win convincingly after a run of seven consecutive points put them in command.

Blair said: "I am very happy. We haven't played too much together, so to perform like that against a pair like that is very nice.

"It is good to come through a close match.

"I wasn't expecting too much. I had a bit of a cold at the start of the week - nothing too serious - but to perform well is obviously a big bonus."

Bankier was playing in only her second tournament with Nedelcheva and felt there were positives to take from their match against South Koreans Jung and Kim, who were infamously involved in last year's Olympic match-fixing scandal.

Bankier, who left the Great Britain programme after London 2012 to compete back in Scotland, said: "It was quite tough. They are a highly-ranked pair, and justifiably so.

"I thought we had them in trouble. We came out strong in the first, won that and in the second we were coming back at them and were unlucky to have a couple of service faults.

"Then they were always ahead in the third and we were unable to catch them."

Away from the British interests, men's singles top seed and two-time champion Lee Chong Wei survived a scare to recover from match point down and beat Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki 13-21 21-6 23-21.

Women's singles top seed and Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China had no such luck, losing to South Korea's Bae Yeon-Ju. Compatriot and third seed Wang Yihan also went out.