11 June, 2023
Ben Lane and Sean Vendy were back to their top-seed conquering ways as they reached the quarter-finals of the KFF Singapore Open.
The men’s doubles duo were the best-performing English pair, with Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith reaching the mixed doubles second round.
Both Smith and Chloe Birch, and Gregory Mairs and Jenny Moore fell in the first round in Singapore in competitive matches.
Lane and Vendy produced the upset of the tournament as they knocked out No.1 seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto with a dominant 21-15 21-18 win in the opening round.
They took only 42 minutes to defeat the Indonesian pair, taking an early lead with five unanswered points before seeing off two mini fight-backs to close out the game comfortably.
The second game was a closer affair, but Lane and Vendy were never behind, opening up a seven-point lead late on to see them to another famous win, their third in four meetings with the Indonesian duo.
It was another straight-games victory in their second-round match-up with India’s M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, as they advanced 21-15 21-19.
Lane and Vendy were behind only once in the first game but were forced to come from behind in the second game as Arjun and Kapila opened up a six-point lead early on.
The duo reeled them in, moving ahead for the first time at 19-18 before winning back-to-back points to seal the victory and advance to the quarter-finals.
There they met Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang of China, with the seventh seeds winning 21-11 21-11, as they took early leads in both games to end Lane and Vendy’s impressive run at the quarter-final stage.
Big W against the World No. 1 today! 🔥 Well done boys 💪🏼 https://t.co/hy2sUB3Mbf
— Badminton England (@BadmintonEnglnd) June 6, 2023
In the mixed doubles, Ellis and Smith advanced to the second round with a 21-17 22-20 over Hiroki Midorikawa and Natsu Saito of Japan.
After a straightforward first game, the pair saw the lead change hands several times in the second, withstanding a late fightback to close out the game and the match.
In the second round, Smith and Ellis were undone by the impressive South Korean pairing of Kim Won Ho and Jeong Na Eun, who won 21-8 21-10.
Smith’s involvement in the women’s doubles had come to an end earlier in the tournament as she and Birch battled to a 14-21 22-20 22-20 defeat to world No.8 pairing Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjan in the first round.
Birch and Smith were impressive in the first game, winning five consecutive points to open a seven-point lead and secure the opener, but despite having a match point in the second game could not hold off the challenge from the Thai pair.
A Thai duo also ended Mairs and Moore’s campaign in Singapore as Supak Jomkoh and Supissara Paewsampran won 18-21 21-14 21-12 in the mixed doubles first round.
A late surge saw Mairs and Moore claim the opening game before their opponents responded in turn to take the clash to a decider.
There Jomkoh and Paewsampran opened up a gap that Mairs and Moore could not close down to see out the win.
All four pairs will now head to Jakarta for the Super 1000 tournament the Kapal Api Group Indonesia Open 2023 which begins on 13 June.
