ENGLAND’S men’s doubles stars Chris Adcock and Andy Ellis will be the most dangerous floaters in the draw after the seeds for the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships were announced. Unseeded Adcock and Ellis may be only No. 24 in the world rankings but they start their countdown to the Championships at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham boosted by victory over the world No.1 pair and top seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen.

The top English pair beat Denmark’s 2011 All England champions for the first time in five meetings on Saturday in the semi-finals of the European Mixed Team Championships in Moscow.

After their 16-21 22-20 21-19 win over the Danes Adcock said: “It was the best win of our career. We have come close to these guys so many times. They are the best pair in the world right now and if we can continue to play at that level we will be really happy.”

Ellis added: “It is something we have aimed for for a long time, to beat them. Now we want to do this week in and week out against the best players in the world.”

Adcock and Ellis will be joined in the main men’s doubles draw by new English National champions Chris Langridge and Peter Mills. But the strength of the overall entry means that those two pairs are England’s only players winning direct entry into the main draw on Wednesday, March 6.

However, six-times English National champion Rajiv Ouseph will be the top qualifying seed in the men’s singles and, after his winning performances in Moscow last week, can remain optimistic of coming through the Tuesday qualifying rounds to join the world’s best players in the first round. Langridge is aiming to be in contention in the mixed doubles as well as the mixed. He and Heather Olver, the new National mixed doubles champions, are the third qualifying seeds and will be confident about their chances when they go into action with the other England contenders on a Super Tuesday qualifying day (March 5).

Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei is the top men’s singles seed as he looks to follow up his victories in Korea and Malaysia in the first two OSIM BWF Superseries tournaments of 2013 with another All England triumph.

The world and Olympic silver medallist and Commonwealth champion has appeared in the last four finals and won the title twice. Now he wants to mark the 30th anniversary of Yonex title sponsorship of the All England by giving his sponsors a third title triumph, especially after he was forced to quit last year’s final because of injury.

But even with his great Chinese rival and defending champion Lin Dan missing, he will have to overcome the best of the rest. Twenty-four of the world’s top 28 take their places in the main draw and two of those missing, Denmark’s 1999 winner Peter Gade and Korean Lee Hyun-ll, have retired. China will make a triple attack on the title through No. 2 seed Chen Long, No. 3 seed Du Pengyu and No. 5 seed and 2008 winner Chen Jin.

Defending champion Li Xuerui is top seed in the women’s singles with India’s Saina Nehawal seeded to meet her in the final. But three former winners are among the eight seeds in Wang Yihan (2009), Wang Shixian (2011) and Tine Baun (2008 and 2010). Denmark’s Baun will be wanting to bow out on a high note as the All England will be the three-time finalist’s last tournament before retirement.

Boe and Mogensen are top seeds in the men’s doubles with 2011 runners-up Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong, Malaysia’s 2007 winners, are No. 2. China’s world, Olympic and two-time All England champions are No. 7 seeds.
In the women’s doubles 2011 winners and 2012 runners-up Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli are top seeds with Denmark’s Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen at No.2.

In the mixed doubles Xu Chen and Ma Jin, the 2011 champions, are top seeds with 2010 winners and world and Olympic champions Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei only No. 5 seeds.

SEEDS

Men’s singles     
1 Lee Chong Wei (Mas)    
2 Chen Long (Chn)   
3 Du Pengyu (Chn)    
4 Sony Dwi Kuncoro (Ina)    
5 Chen Jin (Chn)    
6 Hu Yun (Hkg)    
7 Kenichi Tago (Jpn) 
8 Tien Minh Nguyen (Vie)  

Women’s singles
1 Li Xuerui (Chn)
2 Saina Nehwal (Ind)
3 Wang Yihan (Chn)
4 Juliane Schenk (Ger)
5 Sung Ji Hyun (Kor)
6 Wang Shixian (Chn)
7 Tine Baun (Den)
8 Ratchanok Intanon (Tha)

Men’s doubles    
1 Mathias Boe & Carsten Mogensen (Den)  
2 Koo Kien Keat & Tan Boon Heong (Mas)  
3 Ko Sung Hyun & Lee Yong Dae (Kor)  
4 Kenichi Hayakawa & Hiroyuki Endo (Jpn)
5 Ye Shen & Hong Wei (Chn)   
6 Kim Sa Rang & Kim Ki Jung (Kor) 
7 Cai Yun & Fu Haifeng (Chn)   
8 Hendra Setiawan & Mohammad Ahsan (Ina)

Women’s doubles
1 Yu Yang & Wang Xiaoli (Chn)
2 Kamilla Rytter Juhl & Christinna Pedersen (Den)
3 Ayaka Takahashi & Misaki Matsutomo (Jpn)
4 Jang Ye Na & Hye Won Eom (Kor)
5 Ma Jin & Tang Jinhua (Chn)
6 Satoko Suetsuna & Miyuki Maeda (Jpn)
7 Kim Ha Na & Jung Kyung Eun (Kor)
8 Duanganong Aroonkesorn & Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (Tha)    

Mixed doubles
1 Xu Chen & Ma Jin
2 Tontowi Ahmad & Liliyana Natsir (Ina)
3 Peng Soon Chan & Liu Ying Goh (Mas)
4 Joachim Fischer & Christinna Pedersen (Den)
5 Zhang Nan & Zhao Yunlei (Chn)
6 Sudket Prapakamol & Saralee Thoungthongkam (Tha)
7 Muhammad Rijal & Debby Susanto (Ina)
8 Robert Mateusiak & Nadiezda Zieba (Pol)

For ticket information and more news of the Championships go to www.allenglandbadminton.com

Article by William Kings, Photo by BadmintonPhoto