No All-England glory for Adcock

Ravenshead Olympian Adcock was left with just the mixed doubles with wife Gabby on Friday after falling in the second round of the men’s doubles at the NIA with Andrew Ellis the day before.

They weren’t handed the best of quarter-finals draws as they met Chinese No.1 seeds and Olympic champions Zhang Nan – who helped defeat Adcock in the men’s doubles – and Zhao Yunlei.

And the draw didn’t lie as the Adcocks, seeded fifth themselves, fell to a 21-10, 21-13 defeat – a fault from Gabby shifting the momentum in their opponents’ favour in the second game after leading 8-7.

However, Chris, who won world silver in 2011 with previous partner Imogen Bankier, admitted it wasn’t a case of Zhang and Zhao being too good but them not performing to their best.

“I think they played okay but they were nothing special, I just think our performance was below par,” he said.

“I came out and must have given them half the points in that first set.

“It was a terrible start and we never really got into a rhythm.

“We had patches where it was good and we would catch up with them and then we’d just give them cheap points again.

“They didn’t have to beat us because we beat ourselves which was the most disappointing thing.

“I don’t know if we were getting impatient, but there were just errors and mistakes.

“We got ourselves into situations where we looked quite good and had commanding positions within the rally.

“But we just gave it away straightaway. It was so frustrating.”

The husband and wife pairing were the last English hope in Birmingham and went into the match after a solid second-round performance against Peter Kaesbauer and Isabel Herttrich of Germany.

But they were unable to carry their positive form into the quarter-finals of one of the most prestigious tournaments on the badminton circuit – much to the dismay of Chris.

“Obviously a quarter-final is good but that’s not what we went for,” he said.

“We had patches of good but then patches of not so good, and there were a lot of them in the quarter-final so it’s disappointing.

“It’s good that we reached our seeding, but that was the minimum in our heads because we wanted to go further.

“Obviously they’re going to win the odd game here and there, but we’re never going to win like that if you give them so many cheap and easy points.”

The Adcocks’ hopes of a quarter-final place in the level doubles were also dashed in Birmingham.

Chris and Andy Ellis fell to Zhang Nan and Fu Haifeng of China 21-12 21-10 while Gabby and Lauren Smith went out 21-17 21-14 against Indonesian seventh seeds Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth and Rizki Amerlia Pradipta.

Badminton England and Yonex have announced a major sponsorship renewal for the All England Open Badminton Championships.

The agreement sees Yonex recommitting its support as title sponsor to the Championships, the oldest and most prestigious badminton event in the world.

The partnership between Badminton England and Yonex is one of the longest standing relationships in UK sport, spanning 31 years.

In a significant multi-million pound agreement, Yonex will retain title rights to the Championships until 2021 and increase activity at and around the event.

Badminton England has a great range of ways for you, your friends and family to play badminton. Find your way to play at badmintonengland.co.uk/waystoplay