Lauren Smith Marcus Ellis Yonex All England 1200

20 February 2024

England’s mixed doubles pairs will meet in the first round at the YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships 2024.

Lauren Smith and Marcus Ellis and Gregory and Jenny Mairs have been drawn together in the round of 32 in the mixed doubles.

Meanwhile, in the men’s doubles, Ben Lane and Sean Vendy will face a seeded pairing when action begins on 12 March.

The best shuttlers in the world will descend on the Utilita Arena in Birmingham for six days of gripping action.

And the mixed doubles draw has served up an all-English affair in the first round with the Mairs taking on Smith and Ellis.

The former lost out in the first round in 2023 as they were beaten 15-21 21-9 21-19 by Kim Won Ho and Jeong Na Eun in Birmingham.

Meanwhile, last year’s YONEX All England Open was only Smith and Ellis’s second competition of 2023 after injury blighted the beginning of their campaign.

The pair lost 21-16 21-17 to Japanese pair Kyohei Yamashita and Naru Shinoya in the round of 32 last time out.

Ellis and Smith are currently ranked 28th in the world, 12 places above the Mairs, and the two have only met once before in international competition.

Smith and Ellis triumphed 21-16 21-8 at the 2017 YONEX Dutch Open, going on to claim the mixed doubles title in Almere.

Whichever pair progresses in their first-round match-up will face either Dejan Ferdinansyah and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia or fifth seeds Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin of China.

Get through their second-round match and the successful English pairing could face the defending champions in the form of Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong, who are also the top seeds.

In the men’s doubles, Lane and Vendy will face Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in the first round, with the Japanese pairing ranked as the sixth seeds.

Sixteen places separate the two pairs in the world rankings, while Hoki and Kobayashi reached the quarter-finals of the men’s double last time out at the YONEX All England Open.

The duos have faced each other five times with Hoki and Kobayashi winning four times, including at the 2022 YONEX All England Open.

A win over Hoki and Kobayashi could see Lane and Vendy face either Ondrej Kral and Adam Mendrek of the Czech Republic or Kenya Mitsuhashi and Hiroki Okamura of Japan.

The Yonex All England Open takes place at Utilita Arena in Birmingham between 12-17 March, tickets can be purchased here.

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