Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork got their mixed doubles bid off to a comfortable winning start in Paris on day two of the Yonex BWF World Badminton Championships.

The European bronze medallists came from 14-10 down in the first game to defeat Ukraine’s Valeriy Atraschenkov and Elena Prus 21-16 21-15 in 29 minutes in the Coubertin Stadium. The English National champions were always in control in the second game and built on a 14-6 lead to emerge comfortable winners.

Head coach Andy Wood, who guided Robertson to the 2006 world title in Madrid with Gail Emms, said: “After a slightly apprehensive start, Nathan and Jen got their rhythm and took command. They gained overall control of their opponents to establish a comfortable victory.”

In tomorrow’s second round they will meet Bulgaria’s Stilian Makarski and Diana Dimova with the first real test to come in the third round when they should face defending world champions Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Juhl of Denmark.

England’s No. 2 men’s singles player Carl Baxter (Avon) joined Rajiv Ouseph (Middx) in the second round with a comfortable 21-10 21-12 win over Mikal Matejka of Slovakia.

In the last 32 he will face ninth seed Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand while Ouseph’s opening-day win over Dutch No. 2 Eric Pang has earned him a rematch with 11th seed Jan O Jorgensen, the Dane who beat him in the Yonex European Championships semi-finals in Manchester in April.

In the evening session men’s doubles pair Chris Langridge (Surrey) and Robin Middleton (Yorks), who had a first-round bye, face a tough second-round task against fourth seeds Guo Zhendong and Chen Xu of China while in one of the last matches on day two Leeds pair Jenny Wallwork and Gabby White play 10th seeds Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria and Anastasia Russkikh of Russia.

Robertson and Anthony Clark (both Notts) last night defeated 2005 world champions Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan of the USA to earn a second-round match with Vitaliy Konov and Dmytro Zavadsky of Ukraine tomorrow