Jack MacGregor is relishing the chance to test himself against the best when he takes on reigning Commonwealth Games champions Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge in the Scottish Open.

The 18-year-old former Bournemouth Collegiate School student will team up with Ciar Pringle in the men’s doubles to take on the top seeds at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.

It will be the first time either of the Scottish teenagers has faced Great Britain’s highest ranked doubles pairing, who also took home a bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

But while the challenge that awaits them in the opening round is daunting, MacGregor believes it will be the perfect litmus test to see how their game matches up against the English pair.

“We have the men’s doubles against Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge, which will be exciting and I’m hoping we can put in another good performance,” he said.

“We need to get the rallies going, and you never know, we’ll see what we can get from it. It will be good fun to see where we’re at against the best of the best.

“If we can compete at that level then that’s great, even if we can just get into rallies. I’m not so worried about the score, but as long as we play the best we can I’ll be happy.

“I’m excited to have a chance to gauge where I am against those kind of players. They are the top Great Britain pair and that’s the kind of level we want to reach. 

“I’m not expecting anything huge because we are so young. I just want to beat them on some points, put in a good performance and provide a challenge to them.”

MacGregor warmed up for his first round clash with defeats in qualifying for the men’s singles and the mixed doubles, where he joined up with Singapore’s Ong Ren-ne for the first time.

And MacGregor took plenty of positives from the two matches, including the 21-3 21-8 defeat to Austria’s Wolfgang Gnedt in the singles, as he continued to build his tournament experience.

“I had a tough singles match against a good opponent and I struggled to get used to the conditions, but it was the first time I’ve played at a high level event really,” he said.

“I was a bit nervous but in the mixed I thought I was playing really well and adapted much better. It was a really good match and we played really well in the first two sets.

“It was just at the end where their experience and ability to get on the first few shots made the difference, they were serving really well and got some cheap points.

“We were starting to defend more as it went on and a lot of shots started going over the back so it was all about them getting on the front foot a bit more.

“It’s a very new partnership, it’s the first time we’ve played together in training, or anything really, so we did well to gel together but there was a bit of miscommunication.

“For a first time partnership, I thought it wasn’t a bad performance. This is the home tournament and I wanted to put in a big performance which I feel like I did.”

A world class field of more than 300 hundred athletes from 37 nations have descended on Glasgow for the third oldest badminton tournament in the world.

Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European medallists will fight it out over five days, from November 21-25, with the tournament boasting one of the strongest line-ups in its history.

The Scottish Open Badminton Championships are being staged at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow from November 21-25 by Badminton Scotland with support from Glasgow Life, Glasgow City Council and EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate. Tickets are on sale now at www.badmintonscotland.org.uk.