Scot Susan Hughes reached her seeded position of the semi-finals at the Czech international in Prague but more than met her match in Ell Diehl.

The Russian No. 2 seed beat Hughes 21-12 21-11, but it was another promising start to the new season for the Glasgow player.

Last month, Hughes made the final of the Belgian Open and is already confident of making headway from her current ranking of No. 44.

Kieran Merrilees also showed early season promise by reaching the last 16 of the men's singles. The Glasgow teenager went out 21-18 14-21 18-21 to Russia's Ivan Sazonav.

Elsewhere, journeyman Al Casey justifed his decision to play in the Mongolia International by winning the $5,000 tournament.  He now travels to Macau where he will face some of the world's best players in the Macau Gold Grand Prix.