The French mixed double pair Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue couldn’t make it past the Round of 16 at the YONEX All England 2023.
Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue, who have achieved great results reaching all the quarterfinals of the international tournaments they have played this year, couldn’t beat Rehan Kusharjanto and Lisa Kusumawati, from Indonesia. After 39 minutes of the match, the final result was 12-21 17-21.
The French duo were not the only Europeans ending their journey in the All England today: Yvonne Li also lost in straight games. The German athlete faced the number one in the world, Akane Yamaguchi, and “had to work hard for every single point”, admits Li. In the end, Yamaguchi won 21-13 21-17.
The crowd’s favourites, Lauren Smith and Chloe Birch lost on home soil against Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara 21-9 21-10. “We are really disappointed. It’s hard to take credit away from what they did. Our quality wasn’t right there, we made a few too many errors, but we fought to the end, and tried to change things. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t good enough today”, shares Birch.
Ending on a good note, Carolina Marín was the first European win of the day in Birmingham. Marín beat Beiwen Zhang, from the USA, 21-13 21-18. Although Marín secured a spot in the quarterfinals of the All England, her attitude on court was different than usual. The athlete mentioned in a previous interview her sickness and this time the lack of screams and excitement on court was visible.