Timely reminder: England men’s doubles pair Ben Lane (right) and Sean Vendy stunned Aaron-Wooi Yik in their last encounter in the semi-finals of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
PETALING JAYA: England’s men’s doubles shuttlers Ben Lane-Sean Vendy have beaten every pair that will be at the Olympics, except for South Korean world champions Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae.
The duo are now out to prove that their earlier wins were no flukes - and that’s bad news for Malaysians Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik.
The world No. 18 Englishmen are set to take on world No. 4 Aaron-Wooi Yik today in the opening Group A match at the Adidas Arena in Porte de la Chapelle.
With China’s world No. 1 Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang also in the group, it is vital for Aaron-Wooi Yik to beat the Englishmen to progress to the quarter-finals. Canada’s world No. 32 Adam Dong-Nyl Yakura are the fourth pair in the group and only the top two pairs make it into the last eight.
Lane is confident they can pull off an upset or two.
“We have beaten every pair at the games bar one, so we know that if we’re playing well, we’re confident and when things go our way, we can definitely cause upsets,” he told BBC Sport.
“I think we’re going in as the 10th pair, so we’re not seeded but we won the Swiss Open, beat three pairs ranked higher than us, so we are definitely capable of beating these pairs and producing a result in Paris.”
Lane-Vendy’s form has also improved after a poor start to the year. The pair suffered opening round exits in their first four tournaments of the year before bouncing back to win the Swiss tourney and finished as runners-up in the Canada Open.
Aaron-Wooi Yik, who won bronze in the 2021 Tokyo edition, will need to be sharp from the start.
The Malaysians had been shocked by the English duo, who won 21-18, 17-21, 4-21 in their last encounter - at the semi-finals of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. The Malaysians had won in four earlier encounters.
Lane-Vendy have also beaten Weikeng-Wang Chang in the 2022 French Open and have been buoyed by their Swiss Open success in March. They stunned Taiwan’s 2021 Tokyo Games gold medallists Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin and Indonesia’s world No. 10 Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana en route to their title win.
The Malaysians will really need to be wary.
