Badminton: Imogen Bankier and Chris Adcock lose to Chinese pair in Birmingham

Scotland's Imogen Bankier and England's Chris Adcock put up a decent fight but lost in three games to China's Chen Xu and Jin Ma in the last-16 stage of the mixed doubles at the Yonex All England Open in Birmingham yesterday.

The Bank of Scotland International champions, who rose 17 places to No 31 in this week's world rankings, took the opening game in style but then their more experienced opponents rallied back to win 14-21, 21-14, 21-13 in 53 minutes.

"We had a really good first game but then they adjusted their tactics and we lost our way a little bit," said Bankier, the 23-year-old from Glasgow. "But we've only been together since September and they are a top pair and I'm confident we are on the right track. The Olympic qualification starts in May and making London next year is the main goal and I know we can do it. The first target is to get into the world's top 20 and I think we should make it in the next few weeks."

Adcock agreed. "It's all about building up for the Olympics," he said.

"We know we can play better and we will take the positives form today and work on the negatives."

In the deciding game, it was a close contest in the early stages and the scores were level at 9-all. But the Chinese were 11-9 ahead at the change of ends and pulled away to claim the place in the last eight.

Edinburgh-born Robert Blair and England's Gabby White also showed some terrific form before going out to the No 3 seeds, Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam.

Blair and White are on a great run - they won the German Grand Prix last weekend and have risen 21 places to No. 34 in the latest world rankings - and they took the middle game from the Thailand couple before losing 15-21, 21-16, 16-21.

Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork lost, too. The world's eighth-ranked pair went down 21-19, 21-15 to fourth seeds Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Zieba at the second-round stage.