By Milly McEvoy in Birmingham
Greg Mairs believes he and mixed doubles partner Jenny Mairs’s badminton nouse can help them in their quest for a semi-final spot on Day 4 of the YONEX All England Open.
The pair have been handed a favourable draw after two impressive performances punched their ticket to the last eight of the All England for the first time.
On Thursday, the pair will take on fellow unseeded pairing Lee Jong Min and Chae Yu Jung of Korea in the last eight.
They will play fourth on the Minoru Yoneyama Court with the match also set to be live on the BBC.
“Lee and Chae eat the pair that we have just beaten 21-19 in the third game last week, so it just shows on paper, we’ve got a chance,” Greg said.
Axelsen suffers shock defeat on Day 2 of the YONEX All England
“Against the best pairs in the world, we know how to beat them all. Doing that is another matter but we’ve done it twice, let’s just keep going.”
Having never won an All England match prior to Tuesday, the Mairs now have two victories under their belt in what is set to be their final international tournament.
The pair began the week by knocking out the eighth seeds Natsu Saito and Hiroki Midorikawa of Japan 21-17 13-21 21-13.
The second match against Ruttanapak Oupthong and Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat of Thailand was more straightforward as they triumphed 21-19 21-16.
The world no.44s were pleased to have someone who has experience of winning the All England in their corner during the high-pressure moments of their second-round match.
Top seeds knocked out on Day 1 of the All England
They are currently being coached by Nathan Robertson, who, alongside Gail Emms, were the last English winners of the All England 20 years ago.
Jenny said: “It helps so much in those crucial moments where it is something like 18-18 and he can see that maybe our legs have stopped moving quite so fast.
“We are turning round to him, and he is saying the right things in those moments, like go with extra speed now.
“Even though you might be thinking about extra speed you need that push to do it and to realise that actually that is only a couple more per cent and that is all you need in those moments
“Those little nuggets from his own experience really helps.”
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