Adcocks ready to shine under Friday night lights at All England Championships

Gabby Adcock says she can’t wait to experience the Friday night atmosphere once again after she and husband Chris reached the mixed doubles quarter-finals at the YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham.
Husband and wife team Chris and Gabby Alcock reach the mixed doubles quarter-finals at All England ChampionshipsHusband and wife team Chris and Gabby Alcock reach the mixed doubles quarter-finals at All England Championships
Husband and wife team Chris and Gabby Alcock reach the mixed doubles quarter-finals at All England Championships

The Adcocks saw off Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Greysia Polii 21-12, 21-18 in the second round at the Barclaycard Arena on Thursday.

Victory over the Indonesian pair means the Brits are in the All England quarter-finals for the second year running – they lost to number one seeds Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei in the last eight in 2014.

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The Adcocks were point for point up to 9-8 in the first set against Sukamuljo and Polii, before pulling away to win 20-12.

And Gabby insists that was the perfect implementation of their gameplan.

“We speak to our coaches a lot about the beginning of the game and we call it the settling patch,” she explained. “We want to get in there and settle.

“We don’t want to panic when it’s close – we have confidence in our game, we want to see what they’re bringing to the table and the first 11 is quite key in doing that.

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“So I think it was close at the start but we felt confident underneath and we knew that if we stuck to the plan, then we would do ok.

“It’s an amazing feeling waking up on Friday and still playing in the All Englands – we had it last year and playing out there is just a great experience, so we’re really looking forward to it.”

The Adcocks’ quarter-final opponents on Friday evening will be another Indonesian duo – the fourth-seeded Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir.

Having won the All England mixed doubles title for each of the past three years, Ahmad and Natsir will be heavy favourites heading into the contest but Chris believes the stage is set for a famous upset.

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“We’ve played them a few times – I think we lost to them three or four times and beaten them maybe once, so they are definitely the favourites going into this tie,” he said.

“They’ve won this the last three years but there’s definitely a belief that if we play our best, then we can turn them over.

“Friday nights at the All Englands, there are so many shocks and anything can happen, so hopefully we can cause one of those upsets.”

Tickets for the YONEX All England 2015 at the stunning new Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham are available on the door or online at allenglandbadminton.com.

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