Chris Adcock was left to rue a slow start as he and mixed doubles partner Gabby Adcock lost out at the last eight stage of the China Open.

Bidding to reach the semi-final of the competition for the first time, the Commonwealth Games mixed doubles champions struggled to click into gear initially losing out 21-0 to Liu Cheng and Bao Yixin in the first game.

But they hit back in the second, recovering from 8-3 to lead 10-9 and raise hopes of levelling the match.

However the Chinese pair regained their composure to take the game and wrap up the 21-10, 21-18 win in 36 minutes.

The Adcocks, who did nevertheless still pick up valuable Olympic qualification points, will now head to next week's Hong Kong Open, the last stop on the world circuit before the year-end BWF Superseries Finals in Dubai.

"Not the result we hoped for tonight!" Chris admitted on Twitter afterwards.

"We got off to a slow start which cost us the first, the second was much better but they just had the luck at the end of the set.

"Credit to them as they came out stronger in the first. We would have loved a third set had we managed to take that second though."

© Sportsbeat 2015