DEFENDING champion Kieran Merrilees and rising star Kirsty Gilmour have been named top singles seeds for the Yonex Scottish National Badminton Championships at the Bell's Sports Centre in Perth from February 3-5.

Glasgow's Merrilees is seeded to meet Falkirk's 2010 champion Calum Menzies in the final with Dunfermline's Gordon Hoggan and Glasgow's Danny Leinster seeded to reach the last four.

Gilmour, who lost to reigning champion Susan Egelstaff in the semi-finals last February, is seeded to meet 2009, 2010 and 2011 runner-up Linda Sloan in the final. Egelstaff is not defending her title as she looks to make a full recovery from knee trouble which interrupted her Olympic push for two months before Christmas.

Defending champions Jamie Neill and Keith Turnbull are top men's doubles seeds but they can expect a stern test from former champion Watson Briggs, who partners Paul Van Rietvelde.

Briggs, back from Canada where he took a break from badminton, is out to recapture the mixed doubles title with Imogen Bankier, who is also chasing a title double by partnering Jillie Cooper in the women's doubles.

Bankier will start clear favourite for the mixed doubles title, having won it four years in a row with Briggs before lifting the crown last year with Van Rietvelde, who is second seed with Cooper.

Briggs won the men's doubles title in 2007 with Andy Bowman and 2009 with Thomas Bethell but Neil and Turnbull have won for the last two years.

Bankier has won the women's doubles three times but Cooper, who won with Bankier in 2009, is the defending champion after winning last year with Emma Mason.

Former champion Rita Yuan Gao, who has won four singles, six women's doubles and two National mixed doubles titles, is returning from her coaching in Switzerland to enter and is second seed in the women's doubles with Sloan.

A total of 50 men and 24 women players have entered the Championships, which are sponsored by Yonex UK and are staged at the Bell's Sports Centre courtesy of Perth and Kinross Council, Perth and Kinross Sports Council and Live Active Leisure.

Seedings for the Yonex Scottish National Championships, 3-5 February 2012

Men’s Singles : Holder – Kieran Merrilees (Glasgow)
1. Kieran Merrilees (Glasgow)
2. Calum Menzies (Falkirk)
3/4. Gordon Hoggan (Dunfermline); Danny Leinster (Glasgow)

Women’s Singles : Holder – Susan Egelstaff (Glasgow)
1. Kirsty Gilmour (Bothwell)
2. Linda Sloan (Glasgow)

Men’s Doubles : Holders – Jamie Neill (Hamilton)/Keith Turnbull (Larkhall)
1. Jamie Neill (Hamilton) & Keith Turnbull (Larkhall)
2. Watson Briggs (Renfrew)/Paul Van Rietvelde (Longniddry)
3/4. Michael Campbell (Edinburgh)/Patrick MacHugh (Glasgow);
Peter Hockey (Edinburgh)/Duncan Leith (Aberdeen)

Women’s Doubles : Holders – Jillie Cooper (Edinburgh)/Emma Mason (Glasgow)
1. Imogen Bankier (Milton Keynes)/Jillie Cooper (Edinburgh)
2. Linda Sloan (Glasgow)/Rita Yuan Gao (Switzerland)

Mixed Doubles : Holders – Paul Van Rietvelde (Longniddry)Imogen Bankier (Milton Keynes)
1. Watson Briggs (Renfrew)/Imogen Bankier (Milton Keynes)
2. Paul Van Rietvelde (Longniddry)/Jillie Cooper (Edinburgh)