Wallwork happy with All England draw - but it's tough for Bankier and Adcock

By James Toney, Sportsbeat

WORLD silver medallists Imogen Bankier and Chris Adcock have got the worst possible draw for next month's Yonex All England Badminton Championships in Birmingham.

TOUGH: Jenny Wallwork and partner Nathan Robertson are locked in a tough selection battle with Imogen Bankier and Chris Adcocks for the London 2012 Olympics (Sportsbeat)

The British number one mixed doubles partnership were hoping to ease themselves into the vital Olympic qualifying event at the National Indoor Arena.

But they will take on China's Zhao Yunlei and Zhang Nan, who beat them in last year's world final at Wembley Arena, in their opening match.

Bankier and Adcock, who did defeat their Chinese opponents in Korea last month, are locked in a bitter qualification battle with British rivals Jenny Wallwork and Nathan Robertson for the one available selection at London 2012.

They are currently ranked 14th in the world against their rival's 18th - meaning every tournament takes on added significance.

Wallwork and Robertson, silver medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, are more fortunate - and will face unseeded Thailand pair Songphon Anugritayawon and Kunchala Voravichitchaikul.

But, if they advance, fifth seeds Chen Hung Ling and Cheng Wen Tsing of Taepei would await in the last 16.

"We've not pulled a seeded pair and fingers crossed we can play as well as possible and come up with some good results," Wallwork told a conference call organised by the British Olympic Association.

"The draw is going to be tough for everyone, it's a very strong tournament with exactly the same standard as the Olympics.

"Every tournament we play now is massive for us and we need to progress to the latter rounds.

"It's a very intensive environment, we are both fighting for the same thing and we just need to focus on the next few tournaments. Ideally we could have both qualified but that wasn't to be.

"Nathan's experience has been invaluable. When the qualifying period started I felt the need to do well at every tournament and if I didn't it felt like the end of the world to me. I just need to concentrate on myself rather than anyone else.

"Any pair can beat any other pair on their day. Chris and Imogen played fantastically at last year's world's, beat some of the top pairs and won a medal and we hope we can do the same."

Wallwork and Bankier's rivalry was exposed as not so friendly on their Twitter accounts recently, after the pair exchanged a series of messages.

Scot Bankier questioned whether English players could serve while Wallwork responded by calling her 'crippled' and told her to 'jog on back to Scotland'.

They later apologised and Wallwork, while admitting the incident was regrettable, won't be stopping tweeting.

"It was jokey messages that went a little bit too far," she added.

"I will carry on tweeting, I've got some followers that are interested in what I'm doing. It's a great network but what happened was taken out of context and we are moving on from there and hopefully we can leave that behind us now."

© Sportsbeat 2012