Ghaffar survived a tense finale

He came back from 11-8 down in the deciding game against former world junior champion Dicky Palyama of the Netherlands to win 10-15 15-13 15-12.

Earlier, Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms won their opening mixed doubles match.

The Olympic silver medallists saw off New Zealand duo Craig Cooper and Lianne Shirley 15-5 15-5 in 20 minutes at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.

They now face Koreans Lee Jae Jin and Lee Hyo Jung, who beat them in last week's German Open final.

"It's a difficult draw in the second round," Robertson said. "So if we get past them it should be very good."

The match will be a repeat of last Saturday's final in Mulheim, when he and Emms threw away a 14-3 lead against the Korean pair in the second game to lose 15-12 17-14.

GB pair miss out in Mulheim

"We played really well throughout the whole tournament and just didn't play well right at the end," he said.

"But if we get in the same position I can't really imagine the same thing happening."

The duo are hoping to be the first home winners of an All England title since Simon Archer and Jo Goode, who won the mixed doubles in 1999.

Robertson also played his first men's doubles match with Robert Blair on Wednesday night, beating German duo Joachim and Thomas Tesche 15-10 15-6.

But he bemoaned another tough draw for their fledgling partnership.

"We are drawn to face the top Chinese again - which would be the third time in the last three tournaments," he said.

"We're only really drawing the same people which is very unlucky. We've drawn one of the top two pairs in all the tournaments that we've played."

Elsewhere in the tournament, British number one Tracey Hallam suffered a first-round defeat a the hands of in-form Eriko Hirose of Japan.

Hirose, despite being 16 places below Hallam in the world rankings, won 11-0 8-11 11-9 in just over an hour.

But Elizabeth Cann beat Ragna Ingolfsdottir of Iceland 11-10 13-10 and Scottish number one Susan Hughes beat New Zealand's Rachel Hinckley 11-3 11-3.

In the men's singles first round, English national champion Ghaffar beat Kiwi Geoff Bellingham, a player ranked 20 places below him, 15-8 13-15 15-7.

But Nick Kidd Toby Honey failed to trouble Danish third seed Kenneth Jonassen, losing 15-6 15-6, while Nick Kidd and Tobey Honey also lost.