Jenny Wallwork and Gabby White led the way once again on day three of the 99th Yonex All England Badminton Championships at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.They pulled off what was a surprisingly comfortable win over sixth seeds Lena Frier Kristiansen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark 21-12 21-8.
The England girls were clearly pumped up for the match and dominated their Danish opponents, taking just 32 minutes to finish off the seeded pair.
There was a fantastic atmosphere in the arena as many turned up to support the home nation, and this appeared to inspire the young girls.
“That’s the best we’ve ever played,” said White.
"They clearly had a game plan and with the advice of Gail Emms tactically got everything right, attacking from the first point, defending expertly and exposing the Dane’s weaknesses.
“We know one of the girls had been injured recently (Kristiansen) so we needed to get in their faces quickly, get on top of them. Gail knows them inside out, so with her tactical knowledge we had the best preparation we could have had."
Emms and Nathan Robertson defeated Juhl and Thomas Laybourn in the 2005 Yonex All England mixed doubles final.
Wallwork and White’s quarter-final opponents are expected to be Olympic champions and 2008 All England runners-up Du Jing and Yu Yang of China, who play France’s Laura Choinet and Weny Rahmawati later.
“They are Olympic champions but we need to go out there with the same confidence and game plan, and just try and get on top of them,” said Wallwork.
Andrew Smith is in second-round men's singles action later today against former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat, the seventh seed.
White is back in action later on when she and Chris Adcock take on European champions and fourth seeds Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg in the mixed doubles in the evening.
And the third day action finishes with the Anglo-Scottish pairing of Robert Blair and Imogen Bankier taking on Flandy Limpele of Indonesia and Anastasia Russkikh of Russia also in the mixed doubles.
