Chris Adcock enjoyed a memorable day at the Yonex All England Championships in Birmingham as he safely navigated first round games in both the doubles and mixed doubles.
Leicester-born Adcock and his partner Andrew Ellis, the No.8 seeds, defeated Jui Wei Liang and Kuan Hao Liao from Chinese Taipei 18-21, 21-13, 22-20 to set-up a second-round clash with China’s Haifeng Fu and Nan Zhang.
In the mixed doubles, Adcock, who is playing alongside his wife Gabby, defeated Indonesian duo of Irfan Fadilah and Weni Anggraini 21-9, 17-21, 21-14 and will play Germans Peter Kaesbauer and Isabel Herttrich next up.
Adcock, who is ranked No.5 in the mixed doubles draw, said: “It's great for the crowd to see this kind of badminton and us winning helps a lot.
“The crowd were great and helped us out again in the third, the volume went up when we were winning so they pushed us along.
“I don't think it's a massive ask for us because I know if we play well we can go a long way and do some real damage at this tournament.
“There are good players every round so I think we've got a tough match against the German pair today but we'll just take it a game at a time and, hopefully, if we can get to the quarters then we'll give it our all.”
Meanwhile, Loughborough University pair Peter Briggs and Harley Towler crashed out of the first round of the doubles in Birmingham against Indonesian sixth seeds Angga Pratama and Ryan Agung Saputra after a titanic battle.
They won the first set 22-20, before relinquishing their grip on the tie by losing the next two 22-18, 21-11.
On Tuesday, Briggs and Towler defeated Belgians Mattijs Dierickx and Freek Golinski, plus English team-mates and training partners Chris Coles and Matthew Nottingham, to progress through qualifying and book their place in the main draw.
But despite a battling showing against higher-ranked opposition, there was to be no repeat performance for Briggs and Towler in Birmingham.
“We were quite happy to take it to three but we wanted that little bit more and when we let it slip at the end of the second and it was a little bit upsetting,” said Briggs.
“I don't think there was a moment where it slipped away, they got a few cheap points in a row and these things happen.
“If you put it into perspective those guys are ninth in the world and we are 68 or something like that, so to give them a run for their money in the first two sets is great and we're really happy with that.
“But it leaves us thinking maybe if we pushed harder and tried harder we could try and do better.
“You've got to be confident otherwise you're not cut out for the business. We're definitely confident that if we're out on court against pretty much anybody we'll push them hard.
“It's a fantastic experience, we haven't really had anything like this before so to make the most of it and get to the main draw is big for us and hopefully we'll get more opportunities like this in the future.”
