Peter Briggs and Harley Towler came out on top in a battle of Britain on the first day of the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham.
Briggs and Towler disposed of fellow English pair Christopher Coles and Matthew Nottingham in the second round of qualifying in the men’s doubles at the NIA in the West Midlands.
They had a hard-fought win earlier in the day coming out on top against Belgian pair Mattijs Dierickx and Freek Golinski 15-21, 21-18, 22-20.
That set up an intriguing encounter against their compatriots and they proved too much for Coles and Nottingham who were comfortably dismissed in straight sets 21-12 21-17.
Briggs and Towler now move into the main draw of the prestigious All England Open in Birmingham and are confident they can keep up their run of good form.
“We’re both really pleased to get into the main draw, it’s our first Super Series event and we know they’re a good pair and we’ve played them in the past so we’re happy to come through,” said Towler
“We went on court confident I think we dictated the pace really well and we didn’t really give them a lot to work with. I think if we play like that we can give anyone a good game.”
They will be joined in the main draw by the inexperienced pairing of fellow English duo Tom Wolfenden and Marcus Ellis, from Liverpool and Yorkshire respectively.
Despite only having played together for two months they were able to beat Singapore duo Yong Chen and Zhao Yeo in three sets 18-21, 21-16, 21-18.
They then strolled to victory over the German combination of Peter Kaesbauer and Josche Zurwonne 21-15, 21-17 and were made up to be in the main draw at the NIA.
“We’re absolutely delighted to make it through but I do think we’ve performed really well so I fell like deserve to be in there,” said Ellis.
Meanwhile Nottingham was able to redeem his earlier loss by getting to the main draw of the mixed doubles with Lauren Smith.
The pair won their first match against Canadians Kevin Li and Rachael Honderich and then came back from a set down to beat Yeo and Shinta Sari 17-21, 21-19, 21-17.
© Sportsbeat 2014
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