adcock plots dominance

Heading into the tournament in Milton Keynes, the pressure was on Adcock to deliver in both the women’s and mixed doubles, seeded number one in the former and two in the latter.

And she didn’t disappoint, beating top seeds Heather Olver and Kate Robertshaw 21-10 21-19 in the final of the women’s doubles alongside Lauren Smith.

But Adcock wasn’t done there, going on to lift the mixed doubles title alongside husband Chris. They got the better of Chris Langridge and Olver in the showpiece this time. In truth, few would have expected any different with the Adcocks having climbed to number five in the world rankings after winning the Hong Kong Open in November.

But Gabby admits that she is not done here, looking to climb even higher up the ranks as she plans a year to remember on the badminton court.

“We are really happy with that, after especially not winning last year we wanted to get the title back,” said Gabby, with husband Chris also doing the double by claiming the men’s doubles titles alongside Andy Ellis.

“We knew we would have to play well because there are some tricky pairs here and we’re both happy to have done the double.

“It’s a really strange tournament to play as we obviously know each other’s games inside out and no one really wants to play their teammates.

“It’s whoever can deal with it the best will normally win. So we’re just happy to stay focused and concentrate on ourselves and not worry about who is on the other side of the net as much.

“When you are up there in the rankings, it’s the fine margins.

“It’s just about bridging the top four, keeping our confidence up and I definitely think we can do that. That’s our next aim but we know we’ve got hard work to do that.”

Tickets for the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships at the NIA in Birmingham are available at www.allenglandbadminton.com or call the box office on 0844 444 9994