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(Photo: Badminton Photo)
Lane/ Vendy make their mark and Vittinghus rolls back the years
Date: 1/21/2021 3:26 PM
Published by : Alan Raftery
Day three was a battleground for the world’s top players fighting to reach the quarterfinals of the TOYOTA Thailand Open. 

Perhaps a career-defining result took place today for English pair Ben Lane/ Sean Vendy. The 2015 European Junior Championships silver medallists in recent years have shown all the right indicators that they are ready to step up. 

Last week, they scored an eye-catching win over the experienced Russian pair Vladimir Ivanov/ Ivan Sozonov. In the first round this week, they knocked out the number six in the world pair of Fajar Alfian/ Muhammad Ardianto, their biggest scalp to date. 

Get him off the net
Today they secured their first quarterfinal spot at a World Tour Super 1000 event with a dominant two-game victory over India’s M.R. Arjun/ Dhruv Kapila in just half an hour of play, ending 21-9, 21-12. 

-We played really well yesterday and it was just about backing it up today. We went on with a plan and executed it really well, so we’re really happy with that, Lane stated.

Discussing the tactics implemented today, Vendy says.

-We know Arjun likes to come in and play a soft net and he’s quite skilful, so we had to take that away from him, get him off the net to then get to the net first ourselves. We did this exceptionally well for the whole match, so a lot of video analysis has done a good job there. 

They now face the number two seeds, Mohammad Ahsan/ Hendra Setiawan, who defeated England’s number one pair, Marcus Ellis/ Chris Langridge in round one. 

Lane, 23, Vendy, 24, in fact, faced Hendra Setiawan once four years ago when he partnered Tan Boon Heong. It was a heavy loss for them, but tomorrow is a very different proposition. It would be a big statement on the world stage if they would be able to gain a result tomorrow. Vendy touches on their emotions going in this match. 

-It’s amazing really. We kind of made our mark at a challenge level, and we are just about stepping it up now because a lot of players get stuck in the lower-tier tournaments and never really push up to the top and I think that’s the kind of transition we are going through at the moment. 

I did not know what to do! 
Following his first-round win and looking forward to his opponent today, Hans-Kristian Vittinghus acknowledged that he is the underdog but joked he will try and beat him again as he did ten years ago. His opponent, Shesar Hiren Rhustavito, was 17 the first time they met and has since developed into one of the top singles players in Indonesia. 

Vittinghus, 35, was forced to use every last drop of his experience in today’s match. At 8-6 up in the opening game, Rhustavito flicked a switch and went on a 13-point run to 19-8. Moving into the second game, Vittinghus took control of the rallies and was able to force a decider. 

The match turned into a battle which perhaps suited Vittinghus, who enjoys a physical scrap. Level at 15-15, the Dane scored the next four points to gain the much needs momentum to get to 21. 

-I think the level of play was quite high. There was a period that he was really confusing me with the way he played, I did not know what to do and get out of the pressure that he was applying. But I adjusted in the second game and had a good plan. 

Vittinghus will now face Lee Cheuk Yiu, the man who knocked out the number five seed, Anthony Ginting. They played at the 2018 Hong Kong Open where Lee was the victor. 

Europe’s quarterfinalists: 

Men’s singles
Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus (DEN) vs Lee Cheuk Yiu (HKG)
Anders Antonsen (DEN) (3) vs Sameer Verma (IND)
Viktor Axelsen (DEN) (4) Daren Liew (MAS)

Women’s singles
Carolina Marin (ESP) (5) vs Neslihan Yigit (TUR)

Men’s doubles
Ben Lane/ Sean Vendy (ENG) vs Mohammad Ahsan/ Hendra Setiawan (INA) (2)
Mark Lamsfuss/ Marvin Seidel (GER) vs Lee Yang/ Wang Chi-Lin (TPE) (6)

Women’s doubles
Alexandra Bøje/ Mette Poulsen (DEN) vs Greysia Polii/ Apriyani Rahayu (INA) (5)

For the full results and fixtures, click here

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