Playing their first tournament after a quarterfinal finish at the All England Open 2020, the experienced men’s doubles pair of Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge is back to playing badminton.
- We have tried our best to adapt to the situation. It is nice to be back at the tournament and playing again. This has been the main basis of my life for the last 15 years, Langridge said.
They beat the young Danish pair of Daniel Lundgaard/ Mathias Thyrri 21-19, 21-15 in the opening encounter today. After an error-riddled first game, the English pair picked up the pace in the second as they were pushed all the way. The duo agreed that it was not their best performance.
- Our opponents played great and rattled us a little. We were a bit off and they took their chances. It will be interesting to see how they develop as a pair, Langridge observed.
Realistic expectations
The European Games gold medallists have set realistic expectations for themselves.
- The likelihood is that we are not going to be at 100 per cent. The big thing is to be able to fight through the matches in which you could get easily frustrated, Ellis emphasised.
- We are both quite resilient and pride ourselves on making other players work hard to beat us. If we can carry that forward, who knows what can happen in this tournament, Ellis further added.
Expected to make at least the semifinals, the English will face the new partnership of Samy Corvee/Kenji Lovang in the second round.
Another young Dane loses
Elsewhere, in the women’s singles, the higher-ranked Evgeniya Kosetskaya defeated the 21-year-old Irina Amalie Andersen in two straight games. Down 19-20, the Russian controlled her nerves to clinch the close-fought opener. She eased past the Danish resistance in the second game to win the match 22-20, 21-16. In doing so, the Russian also made up for the loss to Andersen almost four years ago.
Evgeniya Kosetskaya will have her work cut out as she faces Zhang Beiwen in the next round.