By Milly McEvoy in Birmingham
Sean Vendy believes he and men’s doubles partner Ben Lane are equipped to go deep after triumphing in their first match at the YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships 2025.
Up against Yew Sin Ong and Ee Yi Teo of Malaysia, the pair found themselves behind in both games.
However, the two were able to call on their match-winning knowhow to advance to the round of 16 with a 21-18 21-19 win.
“I don’t think we have had the best draws here, most years,” Vendy said. “But I also don’t think we have been that deserving of going deep here.
“In the last year, we have really taken a step up and it is not a shock anymore if we do go deep.
“In previous years, we weren’t equipped or deserving to go deep yet but this year we are.”
In the fourth meeting between the two pairs, Ong and Teo built a slender lead in the first before five consecutive points saw Lane and Vendy clinch it.
The second was a much tighter affair, with neither team able to establish a strong foothold before the English pair claimed the victory.
“We started a little bit slow, whether that was a few nerves,” Lane said. “It is very different to playing in the All England to playing anywhere else.
“It feels like there is a little bit more nerves around playing here than any other tournament, so that maybe made us hold back a little bit at the start of the game.
“Then we were able to get into it at the end of the first and end of the second which was great.
“We’ve definitely got areas we can improve for our next match which is a positive.”
Lane and Vendy will next be in action on Thursday when they take on Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan of Chinese Taipei.
Lee and Yang came through their first-round match in three games and Yang will have to face English opponents in many days as he goes in the mixed doubles and will take on Callum Hemming and Estelle van Leeuwen on Wednesday.
Lane added: “We’ve gained more experience. We had a huge tournament with the Olympics last summer and didn’t come out with what we wanted.
“We reflected pretty harshly on ourselves and got good learnings from that, and we have managed to implement those pretty well.
“I would say since the summer we have played our best badminton, whether that is timing or things just coming together and you don’t really know why.”
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