Robertson & Clark knocked out of All England

Robertson and Clark fell to the seventh seeds

England's top duo, Nathan Robertson and Anthony Clark, went out in round two of the men's doubles at the All England Open Championships in Birmingham.

The veteran pair lost 21-14 21-11 to seventh seeds Zhendong Guo and Chen Xu of China.

Robertson and Jenny Wallwork later beat Danish world champions Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Juhl to advance to the mixed doubles quarter-finals.

And Clark and Heather Olver joined them in the last eight.

Robertson and Wallwork won 21-14 16-21 21-15, while Clark and Olver defeated Lee Sheng Mu and Chien Yu Chin of Taipei 21-18 22-20.

Wallwork and Robertson, who partnered Gail Emms to victory over Laybourn and Juhl in the 2005 final, next face former double world champions Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir of Indonesia.

Olver and Clark, who was runner-up in the mixed doubles in 2007 with Donna Kellogg, will tackle Olympic champions and third seeds Lee Yong Dae and Lee Hyon Jung of South Korea.

"To get to the quarter-finals of the All England, our home championships, is an amazing feeling," said Clark, whose previous partner Kellogg retired at the end of last year.

"Heather is still young and we haven't been playing together long but already we are playing great badminton."

Hopes of a third quarter-finalist were dashed when Robert Blair and Glasgow's Imogen Bankier were forced to withdraw because of Blair's back injury.

Earlier, England's interest in the men's singles ended with defeats for both Andrew Smith and Rajiv Ouseph, while in the women's singles Glasgow's Commonwealth bronze medallist Susan Egelstaff lost to China's sixth seed Lu Lan 25-23 20-22 21-17.

Smith pushed fourth seed Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia before going out 21-18 21-14, while Ouseph, the British number one, lost 23-21 21-8 to third seed Chen Jin China.

Jenny Wallwork and Gabby White were beaten 21-23 21-9 21-8 by sixth seeds Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna of Japan in the women's doubles.

The day was overshadowed by the sudden death of Badminton England chairman Mike Sertin at the age of 66.

Sertin had been in Birmingham for the event, which he had been instrumental in organising, and his family requested that the championships continue as planned.

Badminton England chief executive Adrian Christy said: "We want the rest of this week to be a fitting memory to Mike but right now our thoughts are with his wife, Catherine, and his son, James."