Ben Lane and Sean Vendy led the way for England at the Malaysia Open as they reached the quarter-finals in the men’s doubles.
The duo began their Super 1000 event by splitting the first two games with Chinese pair Xiang Yu Ren and Ji Ting He in the round of 32 before punching their ticket to the next round with a comfortable 21-11 victory in the decider.
The last 16 saw the duo enjoy more success against Indonesia’s Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani and Sabar Karyaman Gutama, winning 21-16 21-14 to progress in straight games.
Despite battling hard, the quarter-finals proved a bridge too far for as China’s Yi Liu and Bo Yang Chen prevailed 21-17 21-17 over a tight 43-minute clash.
In the mixed doubles, Greg and Jenny Mairs were beaten 21-17 21-12 by Huang Dongping and Yan Zhe Feng of China in the round of 32.
But Irish Open champions, Estelle van Leeuwen and Callum Hemming, earned an excellent opening round victory over Ukraine’s Yevheniia Kantemyr and Oleksii Titov.
And the duo only narrowly missed out on a place in the last eight, edged out after a tense finale to a round of 16 defeat to Chinese Taipei pair Yang Po-Hsuan and Hu Ling Fang.
Van Leeuwen and Hemming won the first game 21-16 but the Chinese Taipei duo took the second 21-9 and the decider went right to the wire, Yang and Hu prevailed 24-22 to end what had been an impressive showing for the English pair in Kuala Lumpur.
The next Super 1000 on the calendar…the All England! Bring it on.
