TODAY at the Nationals: Friday 2nd, Day ONE

RICHARD EATON on Day One

Gail Emms, Charity Barnes, Caroline Westley,
Rajiv Ouseph, Anthony Clark, Aamir Ghaffar

Day One snippets ...

Quarter-Final Lineup:

[1] Rajiv Ouseph v [8] Ben Beckman
[3] Nathan Rice v [5] Andrew Ellis
[4] Toby Honey v Mark Sellwood
[2] Nick Kidd v [6] Aamir Ghaffar

[5] Andrew Ellis bt Peter Fearns  21-19, 21-12

Seeded for the first time, Andrew Ellis was looking to reach the quarter-finals for the first time on three attempts, and overcame a somewhat shaky start to do so ...

"He caught me out at the start, he fooled me on the first rally and it took me a while to come to grips with him. I beat him easily last year but he's improved a lot, stepped up his game so he caught me by surprise.

"I've trained hard recently so I knew I was in good shape, but I made a few errors so decided to try to just keep it going to get back into it. In the end he tired and I didn't.

"I've got doubles now, my usual partner's Swedish so can't play, but Ed Foster's brother pulled out so I'm stepping in.

"This is the furthest I've got in this event and I'm looking forward to playing Nathan tomorrow, he's had a couple of hard matches so it should be a good game."

Chris Tonks & Natalie Munt bt
[4] Robert Blair & Jennifer Wallwork
      21-13, 15-21, 21-18

Super-Sub creates first upset

The first upset of the tournament came in the mixed doubles round two as Chris Tonks and Natalie Munt put out the fourth seeds in a final-game thriller.

"It's actually lucky that we had a game earlier, it meant we were nicely warmed up and used to the court.

"I played with Robert for five years, I know his game and his strengths, so that helped.

"This is our second tournament together, Chris stood in for Christian [Roebuck] in the Danish, and he's been super-sub here again!"

Nathan Robertson & Gail Emms bt
Chris Adcock & Gabrielle White     21-19, 21-16 (22m)

World Champions Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson were cheered onto court by the massed ranks of Manchester schoolchildren, who witnessed a closer-than-expected first match for the title favourites...

"We played terribly today, but we've only just arrived in the country and spent a few hours driving up so you can't expect to play very well with that sort of preparation."



Full interview with Gail on Portraits

Quarter-Final Lineup:
[1] Robertson & Emms v Wright & Connor
Tonks & Munt v Honey & Oliver
[4] Lindley & Rayappan v Adcock & Bok
[2] Clark & Kellog v Hanson & Grant

Charity Barnes bt Elena Johnson  18-21, 21-13, 24-22

Sun stops play in Manchester

Yes, the Velodrome is enclosed, but this afternoon the sun was shining through the windows at the top of the cycle track and bouncing off some internal windows directly into the eyes of players on court four.

So the match was suspended, and resumed on court two, in the middle of the second game, 15 minutes later.

From 19-16 down Charity came back to level, and eventually took the extended match 24-22.

"That was a bit close for comfort! I've never had a match interrupted like that before, I must admit. The sun was affecting Elena, it didn't affect me, apart from the waiting in the break."


Full interview with Charity on Portraits

Charity took on second seed Michelle Cheung in the evening, and went down 21-7, 21-7, while Caroline Westley put out third seed Rachel Howard 7-21, 21-17, 21-19.

Full interview with Caroline on Portraits
 

Sun in the Velodrome

Quarter-Final Lineup:
[1] Jill Pittard v Laura Cousins
Caroline Westley v Panuga Riou
[4] Rebecca Pataney v Helen Ward
[2] Michelle Cheung v Elizabeth Cann

Top seed Rajiv Ouseph

"I managed to win the first, which was a bit scrappy, but he played a lot better in the second. In the third I just though 'go for it', got a good lead and I was lucky he didn't comer back further.

"I've only played Rajiv in training, the difference is probably in match experience as he's a few years older than me, but it should be a good experience for me.

One in the Eye
for Aamir

Two-time champion Aamir Ghaffar, seeded sixth, took a shuttle in the eye at 14-13 in the second in his match with Steve Smith - who was loudly supported during the match by his band of travelling fans.

After treatment Aamir returned to court to finish the match, but only after saving a game-point at 19-20.

"I can still feel it now, but it didn't affect my play after I went back on.

"The first match is always tricky, getting used to the hall, and trying out some shots which I'll need later on against the best players.

"I made a few errors in the second, and with this scoring you soon find yourself in trouble if you do that.

"I'm seeded six, and while there might be a couple of better players than me in the draw I don't think there's five. But you've got to beat them to win the event anyway, so we'll just see how it goes.

Ouseph starts his campaign

[1] Rajiv Ouseph bt Bruce Peake  21-15, 21-13 (19m)
Chris Hotchen bt Dave Bellamy   21-13, 12-21, 21-15 (39m)

Top seed for the men's event Rajiv Ouseph found himself a few points down in the first, but from 7-11 he reeled off eight consecutive points, and from there his campaign to win his first senior national title was on track.

Later today Ouseph faces 17-year-old Chris Hotchen, who stemmed a fightback from 13-3 down in the third by Dave Bellamy, eventually taking it 21-15.

"I needed to get used to the hall at the start, so had to get a few rallies going to see how it plays.

"I wasn't sure I'd be top seed, it's all very close between a group of us and on the day anyone can win. Hopefully I can fulfill my seeding and win the title, but I'll have to play my best ..."

Close call for Toby

[4] Toby Honey bt Alex Marritt      13-21, 21-13, 21-19
[6] Aamir Ghaffar bt Steve Smith  21-9, 22-20

Fourth seed Toby Honey made it into the second round by the skin of his teeth, pushed all the way by Alex Marritt. Marritt took the first, and although Honey imposed in the second he couldn't shrug off the Yorkshireman in a decider which Honey led all the way, but never by more than a couple of points.

"That was terrible, a slow start and it didn't get much better, but I'm glad to scrape through.

"I've had a tooth infection so haven't slept or trained for the last few days and I'm still doped up, hardly the best preparation for a tournament. Still, with a game under my belt hopefully I can only get better as the tournament develops.

[2] Nick Kidd bt Andrew Penn      21-14, 21-18
[3] Nathan Rice bt Tom Dunlop    21-19, 21-14

No worries for defending champion Nick Kidd and third seed Nathan Rice, both going through in straight games.

"That wasn't too bad a start. It seems strange looking at a possible quarter-final that's a rematch of last year's final, but that's the Nationals for you ..."

TODAY at the Nationals ... Thursday evening