Chris and Gabby Adcock made the perfect start to their BWF World Superseries Finals title defence with a comfortable victory over Japan’s world number 13 pair Kenta Kazuno and Ayane Kurihara.
Showing all their world-class quality, the Adcocks took just 34 minutes to dispatch their Japanese rivals 21-15, 21-9 in their opening round fixture in Dubai.
Chris Adcock said: “We’re really happy with the performance and the result. It was a perfect start to the week for us. There are no easy games here so to win our first match so convincingly and in two straight games is more than what we could have hoped for.”
The first set remained close until the latter stages when England’s number one mixed pair took control, and closed it out with a six-point advantage.
The momentum continued into the second set as the Japanese duo failed to keep up with the relentless pace set by the Adcocks, who won six consecutive points to establish a clear winning margin.
It is the second time that GB Badminton’s leading mixed doubles pair have beaten Kazuno and Kurihara and backs up last year’s two-set win at the YONEX French Open.
Victory today is the perfect platform for the couple to build on as they bid to retain the title won so impressively last year.
The World Superseries Finals is the culmination of the year-long global series of world class badminton events and sees the top eight players/pairs on the planet compete for prestigious titles.
They will take on the fast-rising Chinese duo Siwei Zheng and Qingchen Chen in their second Group B encounter tomorrow (3pm British time).
Report courtesy of Badminton England
