Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith lost in the round of last 16 at the World Championships.

On paper, English Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith were the favourites against Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet from Hong Kong, but on court the things were turned upside down.

The Hong Kong Chinese won in straight games 21-14 21-14.

- I feel a little bit confused. I am not entirely sure what happened. I think we started really well but our game seemed to fall apart. Tactically they played a very good match and we were a little bit weak today. We crumbled when they changed a few things in their tactics, Marcus Ellis said.

- They protected her quite well. She is not moving that strongly. He took a lot of shuttles, and he took a lot of pace out of the game, so we could not really counter. Our discipline was not good enough today, Lauren Smith stated.

Expected a quarterfinal
With the loss Ellis and Smith are both done at the Worlds after also losing their doubles previously in the tournament.

- Coming into the Worlds we had quite high expectations. We knew that making it to the quarterfinals was definitely possible, Marcus Ellis said.

- We expected a quarterfinal and everything from there would be a bonus. We are finishing on a slightly negative note, but we have to look forward.

Next for Lauren Smith and Marcus Ellis is Kharkiv International, where they will be playing women’s and men’s doubles respectively.