Susan Hughes, Scotland's Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, failed in her bid to reach the European Championship quarter-finals yesterday, then admitted she was struggling to get the funding she need to continue playing at the top level.

The 25-year-old from Glasgow, seeded 11, was beaten 21-17, 21-17 by the Chinese-born former European champion Yao Jie, who now plays for the Netherlands.

Hughes said: "I am disappointed, but I felt I played well and at least I reached my seeding position."

Hughes, who has lost all hope of making this year's British Olympic team, will now return home to prepare for the Spanish and Toulouse tournaments, but admits she must also look at her financial position. "I've been dropped from the GB funding programme," she said. "I was offered a new deal but only if I moved to Milton Keynes home of the National Badminton Centre. For several reasons, I decided it wasn't for me.

"But I'm hoping thatSportscotland are going to keep helping me and I definitely want to keep going until the Olympics in London 2012.

"If I don't get any help then I may have to think about my future. You can't just train in the evenings to compete with players of this level."

Watson Briggs (Renfrew) and Jillie Cooper (Edinburgh) continued a great run to reach the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles. They beat Israeli pair Misha and Svetlana Zilberman 21-8, 21-16 and the reward is a match against England's top seeds and Olympic silver medallists, Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms.

Glasgow's Imogen Bankier and her Edinburgh-born English partner, Robert Blair, cruised through to the quarter-finals. They went through 21-14, 21-13 against Iceland's Helgi Johanesson and Tinne Helgadottir and now meet the English No. 2 seeds, Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg.