3 June, 2023
Ben Lane and Sean Vendy were eliminated in the second round of the men’s doubles at the Toyota Gazoo Racing Thailand Open despite an impressive performance in Bangkok.
The English duo battled back from a game down against China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, winning the second to level matters before taking a 19-17 lead in the third.
However, third seeds Weikeng and Chang, who are ranked sixth in the world, launched a comeback of their own and dug deep to ultimately claim the match 21-18 11-21 21-19.
Lane and Vendy had reached the second round by beating Thailand’s Peeratchai Sukphun and Pakkapon Teeraratsakul 21-15 19-21 21-10 on their home court.
Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith made the same stage of the women’s doubles, battling back from a game down to beat German pair Stine Kuespert and Emma Moszczynski 19-21 21-19 21-7 in the first round.
However, they could not go one step further and fell to a 21-10 18-21 21-17 defeat at the hands of South Korean third seeds Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee. Like Lane and Vendy, Birch and Smith came within a whisker of closing out a statement victory against their highly-ranked opponents – Baek and Lee sit second in the world rankings – but could not quite convert from 17-16 up in the decider.
In the mixed doubles, Smith and Marcus Ellis were up against the same first round opponents they had faced a week earlier at the PERODUA Malaysia Masters, Danish duo Mathias Thyrri and Amalie Magelund.
They were unable to repeat the victory they enjoyed on that occasion, however, with Thyrri and Magelund this time coming out on top 21-8 21-19.
Elsewhere in the mixed doubles, Greg Mairs and Jenny Moore were beaten 21-18 21-11 by Indonesia’s Adnan Maulana and Nita Violina Marwah.
The three pairs are set to return to action at next week’s Singapore Open, a Super 750 event.
