Marcus Ellis/ Chris Langridge, Olympic bronze medallists, have been part and parcel of the All England for many years. They got off to a win on day one but commented how odd it was to play in Birmingham without a crowd.
After their 21-14 21-13 win over Ireland’s Joshua Magee/Paul Reynolds, Chris Langridge spoke about the match.
-It's great to get the win. I don't think we played our best. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter. We won. I've played this tournament a lot, and it's the first time I've felt a drift in the hall, which took us a little bit of time to get used to. All England is normally a very true hall, there's no drift and it's nice to play. It wasn't ridiculous, but there was a bit of drift. We're just getting going again.
The pair have played several tournaments now with all the new restrictions and without crowds, however, player their big home tournament without one is especially out of the ordinary for them.
-Everything feels so strange when you play. It's amazing to be back but it’s tough without a crowd. It's the only tournament we have in our country and it's nice to have people cheer for you occasionally, Langridge joked.
-It's a great event, the best event in the world, and it means so much to people. It's fantastic what's been done this year to make it happen, given what's going on in our country and around the world, Langridge congratulated the effort from all parties involved.
Marcus Ellis/ Chris Langridge will now play the young English pair of Callum Hemming/ Steven Stallwood.
New Danish duo flourishing
Mathias Christiansen/ Niclas Nøhr are the new Danish men’s doubles pair on the scene. They scored a welcome 21-16 21-19 win over Malaysia’s Low Hang Yee/ Ng Eng Cheong.
-We are really happy with our performance. We played really well and it was a little bit strange on both sides, there's drift. We managed to keep our level high and not make too many mistakes. It was tough in the second game, our opponents pushed us back a lot but we are happy we came through this round and played well, stated Nøhr.
They will now play another Malaysia pair, seventh-seeds Goh V Shem/ Tan Wee Kiong.