World silver medallists and Scottish International champions Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier have been drawn against Olympic rivals Robert Blair and Gabby White in the first round of the mixed doubles at this month's Denmark Open, one of the five Premier events in the OSIM BWF World Superseries 2011 circuit.



The two Anglo-Scottish pairs have met just once before when Blair and White won 21-17 21-17 in the Yonex German Open semi-finals in March. Blair and White went on to win the title. They would have met in the last eight of the Yonex Japan Open had they each won their second-round matches.



In yesterday’s draw Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork will face a first-time clash with Japan’s Shintaro Ikeda and Reiko Shiota, who lost to Blair and White in that German final in Mulheim.



Robertson and Wallwork are leading their GB rivals in the Olympic qualifying race at No. 12 in the world rankings going into the Odense tournament, which starts with qualifying on Tuesday.
But Adcock and Glasgow star Bankier’s run of form in recent months have lifted them to No. 15 with Scotland's Blair and England's White at No. 20 after the two pairs reached the quarter-finals at the Li Ning China Masters last month.



England have another pair in contention in Odense, with Marcus Ellis and Heather Olver facing Tao Jiaming and Xia Huan in Tuesday’s qualifying.



Adcock will also be trying to build on his men’s doubles quarter-final effort in China when he and Andy Ellis, who are now up to No. 19 in the world, face fourth seeds Ko Sung Hyun and Yoo Yeon Seong in the first round in a rematch of their Yonex BWF World Championships clash which the Koreans won 18-21 21-13 21-13 in the second round.



But Anthony Clark and Chris Langridge must battle through the qualifying. The third qualifying seeds take on Malaysia’s Wei Shem Goh and Khim Wah Lim in the first qualifying round while second qualifying seeds Marcus Ellis and Peter Mills face a tricky test against Denmark’s Christian John Skovgaard and Mads Pieler Kolding.



Olver and Mariana Agathangelou are in the main draw of the women’s doubles as they look to build on their runners-up spot in the Belgium International. But they take on Canada’s Nicole Grether and Charmaine Reid, who are just three places behind them in the world rankings at No. 25. It will be the first meeting between the pairs

.

Wallwork and White, who have slipped to No. 33 in the rankings, must qualify for the main draw but as top seeds they have a bye before facing Thailand’s Sujitra Ekmongkolpaisam and Punyada Munkitchokecharoen in the match to decide who goes into the first round to face sixth seeds Ha Jung Eun and Kim Min Jung of Korea.



Rajiv Ouseph’s slip down the rankings to No. 33 means he also has to qualify in the men’s singles and he starts against Russia's Stanislav Pukhov. A win there will earn him a tough match against old rival Scott Evans of Ireland or Denmark’s Joachim Persson with the winner of that qualifying group earning the dubious reward of a first-round clash with Yonex BWF world champion Lin Dan of China.



Elizabeth Cann, who is No. 38 in the world, has an equally tough time in the women’s singles qualifying. She starts against Singapore’s Chen Jiayuan with a win there earning her a play-off with Reid or Anastasia Propopenki, the qualifying top seed from Russia. If Cann emerges triumphant she will go into the main draw to face German sixth seed Juliane Schenk, who was the Yonex Japan Open runner-up last month and world bronze medallist at Wembley in August on the way to becoming the top ranked European at No. 6 in women’s singles.



Scotland's Susan Egelstaff, Cann’s rival in the Olympic race, is seven places ahead of her in the rankings at No. 31 but is not playing in Odense.

The Yonex Denmark Open runs from October 18-23 and is followed a week later by the Yonex French Open in Paris.