Wallwork and White fall at first hurdle in Hong Kong

JENNY Wallwork and Gabby White have been sent packing at the Hong Kong Open, suffering an agonising first-round defeat.

The England duo, currently ranked 19th in the world, found themselves just a point from victory in the deciding game before sinking to a 21-18, 11-21, 22-20 defeat to Duanganong Aroonkesorn and Kunchala Voravichitchaikul of Thailand.

And there was further disappointment for White when she teamed up with Chris Adcock in the mixed doubles and crashed out to eighth seeds Diju Valiyaveetil and Jwala Gutta of India 17-21, 21-15, 21-12.

But there was better news for European champions Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg, who cruised through round one in just 17 minutes, defeating New Zealand's Joe Wu and Danielle Barry 21-11, 21-7.

And Nathan Robertson and Wallwork also advanced easily enough with victory over Flandy Limpele of Indonesia and Cheng Wen Hswing of Taiwan 17-21, 21-15, 21-14.

Clark and Kellogg, who showed no signs of the back injury that kept her out of the French Open, now face Valiyaveetil and Gutta while Robertson and Wallwork meet Taiwan's Fang Chieh Min and Wang Pei Rong in Wednesday's second round.

Singapore Open winners Clark and Robertson start their men's doubles bid tomorrow along with Adcock and Andrew Ellis while singles hopes Rajiv Ouseph, Andrew Smith and Carl Baxter are also in action.

Meanwhile, Kirsty Gilmour maintained her unbeaten record at the European Under 17 Team championships in Slovenia when she defeated Line Kjaersfeldt 21-17, 21-17.

But the 16-year-old from Bothwell, who is second seed in the women's singles in the individual event later this week, couldn't save Scotland from a 4-1 defeat in their Group 1 decider against Denmark.

The under-19 National champion's win left Scotland trailing 2-1 and although Lewis Gallacher and Matthew Carder pushed Frederik Colberg and Kasper Paulsen all the way before losing 21-17, 21-16, the Scots had to settle for second place in the group, ahead of Croatia in third and Norway in fourth.

Gallacher and Emma Cook lost the opening mixed doubles and Carder fell in the singles before Cook returned for the last match with Caitlin Pringle, where the under-19 national women's doubles champions also lost.

In Tuesday's quarter-finals Denmark face Spain, France take on Turkey, Russia are up against Poland and England meet Ukraine.