JENNYWallwork believes her partnership with Nathan Robertson is beginning to bear fruit and she is confident of success at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, that begin today.

Wallwork and Robertson, England’s flag-bearer at last night’s opening ceremony at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, won European Championships bronze in Manchester in April but are now targeting Commonwealth Games gold. It would mean a successful defence of the title for Robertson, who was victorious in Melbourne in 2006 alongside the now-retired Gail Emms.

Bolton-born Wallwork succeeded Emms as Robertson’s partner at the end of 2008 and, after a difficult start to the partnership, she believes the results of all the hard work are set to be revealed.

The 23-year-old said: “Like every partnership we had our little troubles at the start; the first six months were really hard for us.Every partnership takes time and at first we had to really focus on what we needed to do.

“But we’ve really come together as a pair and we’ve really started to gel now.

“It’s great we’re seeded one and Nathan and I really hope to win gold – we’re going to give it everything we’ve got.”

Robertson and Wallwork have a strong relationship on and off the court. She added: “There’s a lot of pairs that go on and don’t say a word to each other throughout the whole match.

“It’s quite strange and you wonder how it works. But I think you definitely have to have a good relationship with your partner otherwise it becomes difficult.”