Robert Blair (badminton)

Robert Blair
Robert Blair
Personal information
Country	Scotland
Born	7 August 1981; Edinburgh, Scotland
Height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Handedness	Right
Mixed & men's doubles
Highest ranking	6 (in XD); 4 (in MD)
Representing Scotland
Commonwealth Games
Representing England
World Championships
Sudirman Cup
European Men's Team Championships
Commonwealth Games
	BWF profile

Robert Blair (born 7 August 1981) is a Scottish badminton player.

Blair was born in Scotland, but after attending Loughborough University in Leicestershire, he competed for England from 2001 until 2010, except at the Olympic Games, where Scotland and England are both parts of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team. His main motivation for changing nation was the prospect of medals at the Commonwealth Games.

On 16 December 2010 Badminton England and Badminton Scotland announced that Blair would be returning to Scotland.[1][2] The reason(s) for Blair's return to Scotland remain unclear, but reports suggest a falling-out with members of the Badminton England setup was central to the decision.[3][4][5]

Career

Blair competed in badminton at the 2004 Summer Olympics in mixed doubles with partner Natalie Munt. They defeated Tadashi Ohtsuka and Shizuka Yamamoto of Japan in the first round but lost to Nova Widianto and Vita Marissa of Indonesia in the round of 16.

Blair reached the men's doubles final at the 2006 IBF World Championships together with Anthony Clark, losing the final against Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun.

Achievements

World Championships

Men's doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2006	Palacio de Deportes de la Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid, Spain	Anthony Clark	Cai Yun Fu Haifeng	9–21, 13–21	Silver

Commonwealth Games

Mixed doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2014	Emirates Arena, Glasgow, Scotland	Imogen Bankier	Chan Peng Soon Lai Pei Jing	21–17, 21–11	Bronze

World Grand Prix

The BWF Grand Prix has two level such as Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It is a series of badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. The World Badminton Grand Prix has been sanctioned by the International Badminton Federation since 1983.

Men's doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2006	German Open	Anthony Clark	Jung Jae-sung Lee Yong-dae	11–15, 6–15	Runner-up
2005	Thessaloniki World Grand Prix	Anthony Clark	Michael Fuchs Roman Spitko	15–6, 15–9	Winner

Mixed doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2014	Scottish Open	Imogen Bankier	Niclas Nohr Sara Thygesen	21–18, 21–14	Winner
2014	German Open	Imogen Bankier	Ko Sung-hyun Kim Ha-na	21–15, 21–18	Winner
2013	Scottish Open	Imogen Bankier	Chris Langridge Heather Olver	21–16, 21–14	Winner
2011	German Open	Gabrielle White	Shintaro Ikeda Reiko Shiota	16–21, 21–16, 21–15	Winner
2010	German Open	Imogen Bankier	Yohan Hadikusumo Wiratama Tse Ying Suet	5–15 Retired	Runner-up
2007	Bitburger Open	Imogen Bankier	Kristof Hopp Birgit Overzier	17–21, 17–21	Runner-up
2006	Dutch Open	Jenny Wallwork	Flandy Limpele Vita Marissa	21–18, 21–18	Winner
2006	Swiss Open	Natalie Munt	Nathan Robertson Gail Emms	17–14, 7–15, 2–15	Runner-up
2005	Thessaloniki World Grand Prix	Natalie Munt	Anthony Clark Donna Kellogg	4–15, 15–6, 13–15	Runner-up
2004	Indonesia Open	Natalie Munt	Zhang Jun Gao Ling	9–15, 9–15	Runner-up

BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament

BWF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series

Mixed doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2015	Swiss International	Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth	Bodin Issara Savitree Amitrapai	18–21, 25–23, 21–18	Winner
2014	Spanish Open	Imogen Bankier	Robert Mateusiak Agnieszka Wojtkowska	21–13, 14–21, 21–16	Winner
2014	Orleans International	Imogen Bankier	Niclas Nohr Sara Thygesen	21–13, 19–21, 21–18	Winner
2014	Swedish Masters	Imogen Bankier	Peter Kaesbauer Isabel Herttrich	24–22, 14–21, 21–16	Winner
2013	Irish Open	Imogen Bankier	Jacco Arends Selena Piek	21–9, 19–21, 13–21	Runner-up
2013	Bulgarian International	Imogen Bankier	Robert Mateusiak Agnieszka Wojtkowska	21–17, 21–15	Winner
2013	Kharkiv International	Imogen Bankier	Kim Astrup Maria Helsbol	20–22, 21–9, 21–18	Winner
2013	French International	Imogen Bankier	Marcus Ellis Alyssa Lim	21–17, 21–17	Winner
2007	Scottish Open	Imogen Bankier	Alexandr Nikolaenko Nina Vislova	15–21, 22–20, 21–9	Winner
2001	Scottish Open	Natalie Munt	William Milroy Denyse Julien	8–6, 7–1, 8–6	Winner

BWF International Challenge tournament

BWF International Series/ European Circuit tournament

|} Mixed Doubles with Imogen Bankier'

Year	Tournament	Venue	Round
2014
	2014 Spanish Open	Spain	Winner
	2014 French International	France	Winner
	2014 German Open Grand Prix Gold	Germany	Winner
	2014 Caperio Swedish Masters	Sweden	Winner
2013
	2013 Babolat Kharkov International	Ukraine	Winner
	2013 Bulgarian International	Bulgaria	Winner
	2013 Scottish Open Grand Prix	Scotland	Winner
	2013 Carlton Irish Open	Ireland	Runner-up
	2013 Yonex Belgian International	Belgium	Semifinal
	2013 French International	France	Winner
2010
2010	2010 German Open Grand Prix Gold	Germany	Runner-up
2008
2008	2008 Denmark Open Super Series	Denmark	Semifinal
2007
	2007 Scottish International Championships	Scotland	Winner
	2007 Bitburger Open	Germany	Runner-up

Mixed Doubles with Gabrielle White

Year	Tournament	Venue	Round
2011
	2011 Malaysia Open Super Series	Malaysia	Semifinal
	2011 German Open Grand Prix Gold	Germany	Winner

Mixed Doubles with Natalie Munt

Year	Tournament	Venue	Round
2006
2006	2006 Wilson Swiss Open	Switzerland	Runner-up
2004
2004	2004 Djarum Indonesia Open	Indonesia	Runner-up
2003
2003	2003 Spanish Open International	Spain	Winner
2002
2002	2002 Scottish International	Scotland	Winner
2001
	2001 Scottish Open International	Scotland	Winner
	2001 Irish Open International	Ireland	Winner
	2001 Bulgarian Open International	Bulgaria	Winner

Mixed Doubles with Jenny Wallwork

Year	Tournament	Venue	Round
2006
2006	2006 Big Boss Dutch Open	Netherlands	Winner

Mixed Doubles with Jillie Cooper

Year	Tournament	Venue	Round
2012
2012	2012 Babolat Bulgarian International	Bulgaria	Semifinal

Men's Doubles with Paul Van Rietvelde

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result
2010
2010	2010 Bank of Scotland International Badminton Championships	Scotland	Semifinal

Men's Doubles with Tan Bin Shen

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result
2013
2013	2013 Scottish Open Grand Prix	Scotland	Semifinal
2012
	2012 Babolat Bulgarian International	Bulgaria	Winner
	2012 Irish International	Ireland	Semifinal
	2012 Turkiye International	Turkey	Winner

Men's Doubles with Craig Robertson

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result
1998
1998	1998 Open de Toulouse	France	Semifinal

Men's Doubles with Ian Palethorpe

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result
2002
2002	2002 Irish International	Ireland	Winner

Men's Doubles with David Lindley

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result
2007
	2007 Scottish International Championships	Scotland	Winner
	2007 Bitburger Open	Germany	Runner-up

Men's Doubles with Russel Hogg

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result
2000
	2000 New Zealand International	New Zealand	Semifinal
	2000 Slovenia International	Slovenia	Semifinal

Men's Doubles with Stephen Foster

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result
2001
	2001 Irish International	Ireland	Winner

Men's Doubles with Anthony Clark

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result
2006
	2006 Singapore Open	Singapore	Semifinal
	2006 German Open	Germany	Runner-up
2005
	2005 Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Badminton Championship	Hong Kong	Semifinal
	2005 World Grand Prix	Greece	Winner

Men's Doubles with Simon Archer

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result
2004
2004	2004 Portuguese International	Portugal	Winner
2003
2003	2003 Irish International	Ireland	Semifinal

Men's Doubles with James Anderson

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result
2002
2002	2002 Austrian International	Austria	Winner

Men's Doubles with Chris Adcock

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result
2009
2009	2009 German Open	Germany	Semifinal

Record against selected opponents

Mixed Doubles results with Gabrielle White against Super Series finalists, World Championships semifinalists, and Olympic quarterfinalists.[6]

Tao Jiaming & Tian Qing 0–1
Xu Chen & Ma Jin 0–3
Zhang Nan & Zhao Yunlei 0–1
Chen Hung-ling & Cheng Wen-hsing 0–1
Joachim Fischer Nielsen & Christinna Pedersen 0–1
Thomas Laybourn & Kamilla Rytter Juhl 0–1
Chris Adcock & Imogen Bankier 1–1
Tantowi Ahmad & Lilyana Natsir 0–2
Yoo Yeon-seong & Jang Ye-na 0–1
Ko Sung-hyun & Yoo Yeon-seong 2–1
Robert Mateusiak & Nadiezda Zieba 0–1
Songphon Anugritayawon & Kunchala Voravichitchaikul 2–1
Sudket Prapakamol & Saralee Thoungthongkam 1–2

References

"Blair returns to Scotland". badmintonengland.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011.
Robert Returns to Scotland
Blair returns home after fall-out with England
"Badminton: Defector Robert Blair quits England and returns to Scotland". scotsman.com.
There may be more to Blair's return to Scotland to train than meets the eye
"tournamentsoftware.com". tournamentsoftware.com.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] "Blair returns to Scotland". badmintonengland.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011.

[2] Robert Returns to Scotland

[3] Blair returns home after fall-out with England

[4] "Badminton: Defector Robert Blair quits England and returns to Scotland". scotsman.com.

[5] There may be more to Blair's return to Scotland to train than meets the eye

[6] "tournamentsoftware.com". tournamentsoftware.com.