All eyes on England's future for badminton star Smith ahead of Birmingham run

Badminton star Lauren Smith hopes the YONEX All England Open can ignite young careers as a bumper domestic entry descends on the Arena Birmingham bubble.

The Carlisle native is seeded fourth in the mixed doubles alongside Marcus Ellis and seventh in the women's doubles with Chloe Birch for the Super 1000 showpiece.

And she is enthused by the number of English players set for debuts in one of the world's most prestigious events, including Annie Lado, Jessica Hopton and Toby Penty.

"We've got a really big English representation, which is exciting and hopefully we can give our home fans something to be proud of," said Smith.

"There's loads of experience you can get out of playing in a venue like this.

"It's a huge arena, and the shuttle actually flies a bit differently than in smaller venues they might be used to playing in. That's something you can only learn at the top level.

"Normally there's a home advantage with the crowd here, and we will miss that. But I still think we'll benefit from that vibe of being in England and being able to access everything we normally can in our training environment.

"For those young guys, this is a brilliant experience and I hope they can take a lot from it."