Former All England champion Muhd Hafiz Hashim cleared his first hurdle in the qualifying rounds of the All England Championships at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham this morning.
Hafiz, who won the All England in 2003, defeated Chan Yan Kit 21-11,21-15 and will now take on the winner of the match between Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand and Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei. They will play at 11.45am UK time.
Marcus
Ellis & Heather Olver (England) bt Tan Aik Quan & Lai Pei Jing
(Malaysia) 22-20, 21-23, 21-14
Duration
– 55 minutes
Marcus
– “Really happy, this is the biggest tournament of the calendar year for us and
it’s nice to get back to winning ways because a few months ago we were
struggling for form. A really promising performance that and if we play like
that we have a chance against anyone who’s playing here.”
Heather
– “This is our first All England together, just making it through to the main
is quite a big achievement. All the best players in the world are here so
obviously we want to get through so we can keep playing these players, getting
that good experience.
After
just missing out on winning the second set: Heather – “They had the momentum in
their favour and that showed at the beginning of the third set where we went
five-love down. I’m not too sure how we managed to get it back and win quite
comfortably at the end but I’m really pleased.
Marcus
– “It’s a confidence knock when you’ve had a really close game which you
probably should have won and then to come out again and try and win the next
game is always tough. But we managed to pull it back and in the end we ended up
dominating the set.”
