Egelstaff leads the Team GB quartet into action at Wembley

SCOTLAND head coach Yvette Yun Luo put Susan Egelstaff through her paces on the Wembley practice courts yesterday afternoon as she prepares for one of the biggest matches of her career this afternoon.

The 28-year-old from Glasgow faces 12th seed Sayaka Sato of Japan at 1.05pm with the winner claiming a place in the last 16 of the Olympic badminton tournament. Each of them won their opening match against Slovenia's Maja Tvrdy although Sato had to save a game point before winning 22-20 21-18.

Egelstaff practised alongside Rajiv Ouseph and GB head coach Kenneth Jonassen yesterday in one of the three massive practice halls erected next to Wembley Arena as the Team GB squad leave nothing to chance.

Londoner Ouseph, the Commonwealth silver medallist and 15th seed and reigning Scottish International champion, is in the same situation as Egelstaff. A win against Guatemala's world quarter-finalist Kevin Cordon will put him into the last 16 as well after both players claimed wins against European silver medallist Henri Hurskainen of Sweden.

And Ouseph will be the next match on court (at around 1.40pm) after Egelstaff's contest.

This afternoon's session will be a real bonus for GB fans because all four members of Team GB will be on court in the same session.

Finally, Glasgow's Imogen Bankier and English partner Chris Adcock be determined to put their two opening losses behind them when they face China's Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei at 3.20pm.

Adcock and Bankier, who a year ago in this same arena won the world silver medal behind the Chinese, want to put their two opening defeats behind them as they take on the world's best pair and repay the fans for the support they have received.

They know they can't go any further in the competition but they will want to show Zhang and Zhao that they are going to be a force in mixed doubles for the next few years with 2016 in Rio the time when this young pair will reach their peak.

Images by Edwin Leung