Two English pairs have secured their spots at next week’s prestigious BWF World Tour Finals despite early exits at the Indonesia Open.
Lauren Smith and Chloe Birch have done enough over the season to qualify for the showpiece in Bali, featuring the top eight ranked players/pairs in each discipline across the BWF World Tour campaign, while Smith and Marcus Ellis will compete in the mixed doubles.
Smith and Birch were the only English pair to make the second round of the Indonesia Open, a Super 1000 event, after beating Julie Finne-Ipsen and Mai Surrow 21-15, 21-11.
That set up a second-round clash with Baek Ha-na and Lee Yu-rim and the 2017 World Junior Championship winners proved too strong, prevailing 21-19, 21-9 in 48 minutes.
Smith and Ellis were toppled by familiar foes in the mixed doubles as Ko Sung-hyun and Eom Hye-won triumphed for the second time in as many weeks.
Having been beaten by the South Korean pair in the Indonesian Masters, the first-round draw offered the Olympic quarter-finalists an immediate chance for revenge but a slow start proved costly in the first game, taken 21-13 by Ko and Eom.
The second game was won by the same scoreline to consign the English pair to an early exit.
Ben Lane and Sean Vendy made a strong start to their first-round clash with Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Rambitan, winning a competitive opening game 21-18.
The Indonesian pair levelled matters, taking the second game 21-17, and a run of six consecutive points proved pivotal in the decider as Kusumawardana and Rambitan opened up a 9-2 lead.
They went on to win the game 21-9 to continue their progress while Lane and Vendy, eighth in the BWF World Tour Rankings prior to the tournament, now wait to discover if they have done enough to feature in next week’s Finals.
The YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships return to Utilita Arena Birmingham with the best players from around the world from 16th – 20th March 2022.
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