AFTER reaching the quarter-finals of the Swedish Open last weekend, England badminton player Elizabeth Cann must now wait to see if she has made team selection for the Uber Cup, badminton’s equivalent of the Davis Cup in tennis.

Her success in Sweden came after a poor showing in the Portuguese Open, which took place in the first week of the New Yea.She reached the last 16 by beating a Czech Republic player before going out to her former flatmate, Anu Werkstrom, from Finland, 11-5, 11-6.After Portugal, she then found herself last weekend in Sweden, playing in a much tougher competition, the Swedish Open.Competition in all of these national championships is now exceedingly tough as players chase ranking points to qualify for the Olympics.Cann had to play two rounds in a qualifying tournament before she could be entered for the main draw.After winning her first match, comfortably, against Sweden’s Katja Wenberg, 11-3,11-1, she then beat the German player Michaela Pfiffer 11-3, 11-3 to progress fairly comfortably to the tournament proper.In the main draw she continued her winning ways, beating Icelandic player Ragna Ingolffdottir 11-6, 11-0.An even better win was to follow, as she took on and beat No 7 seed Julienne Schenk 11-8, 11-8.Now in the quarter-finals, she then took on No 3 seed Marina Andrievskaia whose height and reach gave her an immediate advantage over the Jersey/UK player.After losing the first game 11-1 Cann was unlucky in the second, for the longer the game went on the more she was able to read her opponent’s style of play.Although Cann went down 11-9, the margin of her defeat was a reminder to Andrievskaia that her opponent had the measure of her and that if Cann had forced a third game, anything was possible.Cann is now waiting to see if she has been selected to represent England in the Uber Cup.That competition takes place in February.