Third seed Rajiv Ouseph was given a fright by old rival Scott Evans in Lisburn today before booking his place in this afternoon's second round of the Yonex Irish International.

Evans stormed through the first game 21-9 and led 13-7 in the second before the 2008 winner and Scottish International champion reacted and launched a strong fightback.

He drew level at 14-14 and went on to take the second game 21-18. In the decider he never looked back from 2-2 and ran out a 21-10 winner to book a second-round clash with  Henri Hurskainen.

But Ouseph fared better against the Swede, coming through in straight games 21-11 21-16 to meet fifth seed Ville Lang' in tomorrow's quarter-finals.

Joshua Green, who won three qualifying rounds to reach the main draw, put in a creditable display before losing 21-16 22-20 to Bjorn Seguin.

Green, the National Under 19 champion, came back from 18-16 down in the second game to lead 20-18 but could not cash in on two game points and the American snatched victory.

England's other singles hope Ben Beckman put up a brave fight against second seed Przemyslaw Wacha before the Polish No. 1 came from behind to win 18-21 21-15 21-7 to earn a second-round clash with Kieran Merrilees.

The Scot, who defeated Sweden's Magnus Sahlberg 21-10 21-16 in the first round, put up a good showing but Wacha came through 21-16 21-18.

In the women's singles former champion Elizabeth Cann suffered another frustrating opening-match defeat just when she needed a good run to boost her Olympic hopes.

The seventh seed went down 21-14 22-20 to Scottish International runner-up Line Kjaersfeldt of Denmark despite having led 12-8 in the second game.

Helena Cable, who came through qualifying, also went out in a 21-14 21-10 defeat by Spain's Beatriz Corrales.

But England had one player through to the second round when Sarah Milne won her opeining clash with Sandra-Maria Jensen of Denmark 21-11 21-17.

But in the second round tonight she went down 21-15 21-13 to Spain's second seed Carolina Marint.

Marcus Ellis and Heather Olver got off to a winning start in the mixed doubles by beating Irish pair Ciaran and Sinead Chambers 21-19 21-6 but Matthew Nottingham and Helena Lewczynska went down 21-16 21-14 to Kasper Paulsen and Britta Andersen of Denmark.

Ellis and Olver had to work harder in their second match, beating Dutch pair Jacco Arends and Ilse Vaessen 20-22 21-14 21-15 to reach the last eight.

Ellis was also off to a solid start in the men's doubles with he and Peter Mills scoring a good 24-22 21-17 win over Croatian pair Zvonimir Durkinjak and Zvonimir Hoebling.

But Nottingham and Chris Coles went out 21-15 21-19 to more experienced Dutch pair Jacco Arends and Dave Khodabux.

Mills and Ellis were up against Kasper Ipsen and Mikkel Mikkelsen in the second round and they let slip a first-game lead to lose the opener before roaring back to win 22-24 21-11 21-17 to give Ellis his second quarter-final of the tournament.

In the women's doubles Hayley Rogers and Helena Lewczynka won one of the day's longest matches, beating France's Laura Choinet and Audrey Fontaine 21-17 26-28 21-16 in a 55-minute battle.

It would have been much shorter if they had converted one of their three match points in the second game. Instead, the French pair took it to a decider when they won it on their fourth game point.

That took them into tonight's second round along with third seeds Olver and Mariana Agathangelou.

Olver and Agathangelou, who had a first-round bye, moved into the last eight with a comfortable 21-13 21-8 win over Steffi Annys and Severine Corvilain of Belgium.

That left Lewczynska and Rogers to take on second seeds Lotte Jonathans and Paulien Van Dooremalen of the Netherlands but the England pair went down narrowly, edged out 21-19 21-16 after having their noses in front at 17-16 in the first game.

Scotland's Jillie Cooper and Kirsty Gilmour beat Ireland's Sinead Chambers and Jennie King 21-16 21-10 to join Agathangelou and Olver in the last eight.

To follow today's action check out www.tournamentsoftware.com or log on to badmintoneurope.tv