14 March, 2023
Two English pairings get their YONEX All England Open campaigns underway on the second day of action at Utilita Arena Birmingham.
World No.18 duo Ben Lane and Sean Vendy return to the men’s doubles draw at the world’s oldest badminton tournament for the fourth year in succession.
Their quest to move past the second round begins with a stern test against familiar foes, the fifth seeds, China’s Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi.
“The men’s doubles tour at the moment is stacked with so many good pairs so there’s never an easy game,” Lane said. “We just have to focus on our game and what works well for us.
“Especially in the lead up to the big events, we’ll do quite a lot of work sharpening up and where we think our best game is, we’ll just work on that extra one or two percent that can make a difference in the end.”
Lane and Vendy know exactly what they’re up against.
They have faced Liu and Ou in their first two games on the BWF World Tour in 2023 at the Malaysian Open and Indian Open, with the Chinese pair holding sway on both occasions.
The home favourites have shown they can topple the best having beaten four of the world’s top six pairs in the last four months of 2022.
Lane said: “When we play well we can beat any pair.
“We don’t necessarily have goals about what round we want to get to, we just want to try and perform our best and just hopefully that’ll take us deep into the tournament.”
For Jenny Moore and Greg Mairs, it is a second chance to strut their stuff on one of the biggest stages in the sport.
They enter the mixed doubles draw against South Korea’s Kim Won Ho and Jeong Na Eun, who they have never faced before and are ranked No.12 in the world.
Mairs and Moore made their YONEX All England debuts in 2021, going down in the deciding game to Malaysia’s Chen Tang Jie and Peck Yen Wei.
Tickets for the 2023 YONEX All England Open are on sale now. Click here to secure your seat!
