Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith lost a tight second-round encounter at the VICTOR Denmark Open to bring English participation to an end in Odense.
Ellis and Smith, seeded sixth in the Super 1000 event, took the opening set 21-17 against the Chinese Taipei duo Lee Jhe-Huei and Hsu Ya-Ching and were soon locked at 16-16 in the second as they looked to seal their progress.
But Lee and Hsu held their nerve to take it 21-19 and carried their momentum into the decider, winning four consecutive points at a crucial time to open up a 14-9 lead and going on to win the set 21-14.
The English pair had got their tournament off to a perfect start on Wednesday, beating Denmark’s Jeppe Bay and Sara Lundgaard 21-6 21-10 in a one-sided first round clash.
Ellis & Smith Lose in 3 Sets💔 @ellis_marcus111 & @LaurenE_Smith succumbed to the world number 24 pair from the Chinese Taipei Lee Jhe-Huei & Hsu Ya Ching 21-17 19-21 14-21.
That caps off a tough week in Denmark but next up we have the French Open to look forward to💪 pic.twitter.com/XO5Nem4z1Q
— Badminton England (@BadmintonEnglnd) October 21, 2021
But Lee and Hsu’s success denied Ellis and Smith a quarter-final with Thai second seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai, who they overcame in the group stage of this summer’s Olympics in Tokyo.
Ellis and Smith were the sole English representatives in the second round, with Smith and Chloe Birch falling at the first hurdle in the women’s doubles.
Seeded eighth, the pair were beaten 21-15 21-7 by Puttita Supajirakul and Taerattanachai in Odense, with the Thai duo reeling off 13 consecutive points to pull clear in the second set.
The third Olympic pair in action, Ben Lane and Sean Vendy, lost out against India’s Arjun M.R. and Dhruv Khapila in the first round of the men’s doubles.
England were defending their crown in the discipline following Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge’s success in 2020 and the first set was nip-and-tuck before Arjun and Khapia took it 21-19.
Lane and Vendy opened up an 11-8 lead in the second but the Indian pair reeled off six straight points at 13-13 to put themselves in the driving seat and claimed the second set 21-15.
Callum Hemming and Steven Smallwood also fell to an Indian pairing, going down 23-21 21-15 at the hands of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
Hemming and Smallwood fought back from 19-15 down to lead 21-20 in the opener only for the seventh seeds to hit back before taking the second comfortably.
Hemming was back in action later on Tuesday alongside Jessica Pugh but unfortunately, the outcome was similar as the pair were beaten 21-13 21-19 by South Korea’s Ko Sung-Hyun and Eom Hye-Won.
The English contingent will look to bounce back at next week’s French Open in Paris, which gets underway on October 26.
