Jonassen sees opportunities for GB squad

Team GB's Head Coach Kenneth Jonassen was full of optimism after the draw for the Olympic badminton tournament.

Jonassen, a former Olympian and world No. 2 in his playing days for Denmark, said "I think it's a very positive draw for us in all three categories.

"There are some tough matches but overall we didn't get drawn in any of those groups of death where many opponents are unbeatable or where you have too many tough games in a row. It's all very open and I think we have good chances.

Jonassen then analysed the draw event by event from a GB standpoint, starting with Rajiv Ouseph in Group M of the men's singles.

"Raj is in the group with Henri Hurskainen, the European silver medallist, and Kevin Cordon, the big surprise at last year's World Championships when he reached the quarter-finals.

"On form I would say that Henri is the player to beat but it looks like a group where everyone can beat each other.

"In the women's singles Susan Egelstaff is up against a top Japanese player in Sayaka Sato. It will be very tough but I think she could beat her, certainly threaten her.

"But it means the match with Maja Tvrdy (Slovenia) is a must-win game. For Susan the draw gives her a nice balance between being an underdog and being a favourite."

Jonassen then ran the rule over Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier, who were draw in the same Group A as their great rivals Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei of China.

"I think this will be the fourth time they have met this year (Adcock and Bankier have won two of those three meetings) and I think it is an open match between these two pairs. No-one can predict how it is going to go."

It is also fairly unpredictable with regard to the Anglo-Scottish pair's other two matches in Group A as they have never faced Russia's Alexandr Nikolaenko and Valeri Sorokina or Germany's Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels."

Adcock said of the draw: "I kind of expected getting the No.1 Chinese again. We have played them so many times this year, I just thought it was always going to happen again. They are top seeds and favourites for the title but I think we've shown that we've beaten them twice in the last three times and so we definitely believe we can win.

"We've also got two good European pairs, a German pair and a Russian pair, and we know if we can play well on our day we can win.

But the key thing with all the pairs is that if we don't play well we will lose.

"With Zhang and Zhao it’s a 50-50 game but we are the one pair they wouldn't have wanted in their group. We learned a lot from the last time we played them so hopefully we can pull of a good result again."

The nine-day tournament begins on Saturday morning and the playing schedule will be announced by the BWF within the next 48 hours.