19/4/11 - 1800

Boulton and Johns fought hard against the number 6 seeds from Austria, but lost in 3 sets, 9-21, 22-20, 11-15. Next they faced the number 11 seeds, and a very partisan crowd, with Lima-Vivian from Brazil. The GB girls lost 21-19, 21-13, however a good start for the 2011 season.

GB men were next up on number 1 court, however lost to the number 4 seeds from the USA, Patterson-Keenan, 17-21, 12-21 and exited the tournament.

Nest on the tour is Shanghai, China, where these 4 GB teams will be joined by Robin Miedzybrodzki and his partner Tom Lord, plus the brothers Luke and Jake Sheaf. Good luck to them all!

19/4/11 - 1400

Update from Brazil - Boulton and Johns scraped through due to a withdrawal by Greece and face the Schwaiger sisters from Austria this afternoon in the Main Draw.

Meanwhile, in the Men's event, by a quirk of the draw, the 2 GB teams had to face each other in the first round of the qualification tournament. Gregg Weaver and Jody Gooding, reunited after a number of years apart, beat Gregg's old partner Steve Grotowski and John Garcia-Thompson 21-18, 22-20. They now face the number 4 seeds of Patterson-Keenan from the USA later today.

18/4/11

There were victories for both GB women's pairings in the first round of qualifying today in Brasilia. Lucy Boulton and Denise Johns were first up with a comfortable victory over Tcholakova and Todorova from Bulgaria, 21-13, 21-13.

Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney also won through in a much tougher encounter after dropping the first set to Borger-Büthe from Germany, 16-21, 21-19, 18-16.

Unfortunately both teams went out in the final qualifying round. Boulton and Johns went down to Ryabova-Ushkova of Russia, 13-21, 19-21, while Mullin and Dampney lost to the 3rd seeded team from China, Huang-Yue, 21-17, 23-21.

The men start tomorrow with 2 GB Men's teams in action. Keep up with all the action here.