12 March 2024
The final English pairing Ben Lane and Sean Vendy will get their YONEX All England Badminton Championships 2024 campaign underway on Wednesday.
After the opening day’s all-English battle between Lauren Smith and Marcus Ellis and Greg and Jenny Mairs, Lane and Vendy take on Japanese sixth seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi.
The pairs have met five times before including at the YONEX All England Open in 2022, wen Hoki and Kobayashi prevailed in three sets.
Lane and Vendy have won once, at the Denmark Open in 2019, triumphing 21-14 21-17.
View this post on Instagram
Hoki and Kobayashi were crowned world champions in 2021, also winning the World Tour Finals in the same year.
The world no.6’s joint-best result in Birmingham came in 2022 when they beat Lane and Vendy en route to the quarter-finals, and they also reached the last eight in 2021
Meanwhile, Lane and Vendy’s best result at the YONEX All England Open came two years ago, when they lost to Tuesday’s opponents in the second round.
Lane and Vendy head into their match, which is fifth on Minoru Yoneyama Court, hoping to channel the Brmingham crowd that helped them to Commonwealth silver in 2022.
“It’s massive for us,” Vendy said.
“We had the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022 and we probably did better than we expected. We beat the world champions in the semi-final and having a home crowd that helped us get over the line was massive for us.
“It really helps lift us when times get tough out there. So it’s something that we really look forward to, big time.”
Be part of All The Action at the All England. Tickets are still available at allenglandbadminton.com. Can’t be in Birmingham this week? You can still see badminton’s most prestigious tournament play out on BBC Sport and TNT Sports. Don’t miss a minute!
