Ben Lane and Sean Vendy produced a stirring comeback to claim a memorable victory at the Hylo Open in Saarbrucken, Germany.
The men’s doubles duo battled back from a game down to beat Denmark’s Rasmus Kjaer and Frederik Sogaard in the final of the Super 300 event.
It is their second BWF World title of the calendar year, following the Swiss Open in March, and third of their careers.
Top seeds for the tournament, Lane and Vendy produced a series of commanding performances on route to Sunday’s final.
They reached the showpiece without dropping a game, accounting for fifth seeds Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard in the semi-finals and familiar opposition in Alex Dunn and Adam Pringle of Scotland in the quarters.
Up against second seeds Kjaer and Sogaard in the final, they went down 21-18 in the opening game but quickly hit back. They led the second throughout and took it 21-15 to take the match to a decider.
At 8-3 down in the rubber, Lane and Vendy were staring down the barrel but rallied to win four successive points and pull it back to 8-7.
The English pair then went on a run of four straight points to take the lead before being reeled in at 16-16 in a see-saw game.
Lane and Vendy did enough to get over the line in the end, winning the crucial third game 21-18 to take the contest in 73 minutes.
They weren’t the only English pair in action in Saarland with Greg and Jenny Mairs reaching the quarter-final stage of the mixed doubles competition.
They enjoyed a titanic tussle with compatriots Callum Hemming and Estelle Van Leeuwen in the round of 16, running out 21-17 18-21 21-18 victors, before seeing their campaign end in the last eight with a loss to Jesper Toft and Amelie Magelund of Denmark.
Hemming’s hopes alongside Ethan Van Leeuwen in the men’s doubles also ended at the round of 16 stage as they went down to Lundgaard and Vestergaard.
Estelle teamed up with Chloe Birch in the women’s doubles and they were narrowly beaten out by top seeds Sung Sho Yun and Yu Chien Hui.
Having won the first game 21-19, the pair from Chinese Taipei roared back to win the next two 21-8 21-19.
Image: Badminton Photo (Yang Shaochen)
