Rogers has sights on European success (From Crewe Guardian)

Rogers has sights on European success

4:17pm Thursday 9th February 2012 in More sport

CREWE’S Hayley Rogers admits the pressure got the best of her at the English National Badminton Championships in Bolton after she fell at the first hurdle.

The 19-year-old and women’s doubles partner Helena Lewcyznska were seeded for the very first time at the Nationals but after a first-round bye they crashed out to Jessica Fletcher and Alyssa Lim, going down 21-12, 21-17.

The draw couldn’t have been less kind to the fourth seeds – Lim and Fletcher are nipping at their heels in terms of rankings and by her own admission Rogers expected those two to be ranked higher than she and Lewcyznska were.

And as a result, the former national under 19s women’s doubles finalist refused to be too downhearted in defeat.

“I think we started off a bit slow and we made a few too many errors, we needed to get into our groove a bit earlier,” said Rogers.

“It’s a bit disappointing because it was the first time we’ve been seeded but there are plenty more Nationals to come.

“There was a bit of pressure on us as we thought that our opponents would be seeded but it wasn’t the case and so it was a really hard game.”

Rogers was a busy girl in Bolton as she also entered the women’s singles but lost a gruelling first-round match with Dawn Johnson 21-18, 21-19.

But Rogers wasn’t about to use that as an excuse, insisting she has the stamina for the rest of the season, starting with three imminent trips to Europe.

“I had a tough singles match but I’m pretty fit and I was feeling ok – I just didn’t really have my head on it,” she added.

“We’ve got some international tournaments coming up and we’re looking to try and get to the quarter-finals in those in Austria, Romania and Holland.

“We had a pretty good result in Turkey recently and that gave us a lot of confidence and while things didn’t quite work out for us this time we’re hoping for some more good results as the year goes on.”

To experience the English athletes and worldwide Olympic hopefuls next in England, purchase tickets to the Yonex All England Open Badminton Champ-ionships from March 6-11 at allenglandbadminton.com