19 August, 2023
Ben Lane and Sean Vendy will be looking to emulate last year’s BWF World Championships heroics when this year’s action gets underway in Copenhagen on Monday.
Twelve months ago in Tokyo, Lane and Vendy caused arguably the upset of the tournament when they knocked out top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo on their way to an impressive quarter-final showing.
At the Royal Arena in the Danish capital, Lane and Vendy start their campaign in the opening round against Guatemala’s Anibal Marroquin and Jonathan Solís.
Tenth seeds Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin await the winners in the second round, before a potential quarter-final against second seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
Also in men’s doubles action in Copenhagen are Rory Easton and Zach Russ, who will be making their World Championships debut this coming week.
Easton and Russ will open their campaign versus Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan; should they beat the Chinese Taipei pairing, they will play top seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.
Solid rally from the boys earlier this week 💪🏼
The team is getting ready for the BWF World Championships, coming up 21-27 August 2023. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/PZMExCDKdL
— Badminton England (@BadmintonEnglnd) August 10, 2023
Also making their event debut are Abby Harris and Annie Lado, the English pairing competing together in the women’s doubles.
Harris and Lado begin their tournament against Brazilians Jaqueline and Samia Lima in round one, before a potential second round versus sixth seeds Zhang Shuxian and Zheng Yu.
Joining them in the women’s doubles draw are Lauren Smith and Chloe Birch, who missed last year’s competition through an injury for Smith.
They face Jin Yujia and Crystal Wong of Singapore in their round one contest, and, should they win, would go on to play 12th seeds Li Wenmei and Liu Xuanxuan.
Smith will also be in action in the mixed doubles competition alongside Marcus Ellis, with a first-round clash against Australians Kenneth Choo and Gronya Somerville incoming.
View this post on Instagram
Should Ellis and Smith prevail, they would go onto face an all-European battle against seventh seeds Thom Gicquel and Delphine Derue – a rematch of the thrilling European Games semi-final from earlier this summer.
Also in action are Greg Mairs and Jenny Moore, who have been drawn against Serbian shuttlers Mihajlo Tomic and Andela Vitman in their opening round contest.
Mairs and Moore would then face a strong test from third seeds Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping in round two.
The English players will be assisted by a four-strong coaching crew of Anthony Clark, Julian Robertson, Nathan Robertson and Kat Hurrell out in Copenhagen.
