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England's Chris Adcock and Gabby White capped a great first year of their mixed doubles partnership by lifting the Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open title in Kowloon yesterday.
That made them only the second England winners of a Superseries title following Nathan Robertson and Anthony Clark's 2009 men's doubles triumph in Singapore.
Adcock and White defeated Cheng Liu and Bao Yixin 21-14 24-22 to take the title. The husband-and-wife pair dominated the first game but had to come from behind in the second with the Chinese pair leading 20-15 before a six-point burst gave Adcock and White their first match point at 21-20.
Their opponents responded to hold game point at 22-21 before Adcock and White took the next three points to clinch victory after 40 minutes.
The England pair are already up to No.7 in the world but this win and the semi-final victory over world No1s Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei will set them up for next month's grand finals of the OSIM BWF Superseries 2013 circuit in Kuala Lumpur.
The victory also sends out a warning to their Commonwealth rivals that they are going to be genuine podium contenders at Glasgow 2014 next summer.
A delighted Adcock said: "This is our proudest moment in our career so far. What a week we've had, firstly beating the world No.1 pair and Olympic champions in the semi final and then going on to win the final in two straight games and stand on the top of the podium. It's just an amazing feeling.
"We have dared to dream about this moment for a long time and to achieve it feels great."
Anthony Clark, one half of the pairing that won England's first Superseries title, said: "I am delighted for them. It is so rare for something like this to happen to England players. But this is well deserved after what they have achieved in the last six weeks.
"This week has revealed the quality Chris and Gabby have in their game. To beat two Chinese pairs on the way to the title, it's incredible what they have done this week.
"I think after Chris won his world silver medal (with Imogen Bankier) in 2011 he feared that might be as good as it gets but he is now a very good player and this title should just be the beginning. They can now believe there is more to come.
"This will make the world take notice and this is a great result to build on as we look ahead to the Commonwealth Games and then to Rio."
Article by William Kings. Photo (LIVE) by BadmintonPhoto.
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