Chris and Gabby Adcock, the husband and wife from England achieved arguably their finest mixed doubles performance together when they reached the final of the Dubai World Superseries Finals on Saturday.
The Adcocks earned their place in the final with a 21-17, 22-20 win over Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto of Indonesia, having been behind for much of the first game and then facing defeat when a four-point second game lead evaporated into a 16-17 deficit before coming back to win 22-20.
Their triumph followed a great comeback from 15-17 down in the final game in their final group match yesterday against Lee Chun Hei and Chau Hoi Wah of Hong Kong, when they were close to exiting the tournament.
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Fighting qualities and tactical nous have characterised their fine performances which have also included a win over Tontowi Ahmad and Lilyana Natsir, the former world champions from Indonesia.
“Today’s match was very enjoyable, because neither pair wanted to lift (the shuttlecock)”, said Chris. “It was very dangerous to do that,” he added, meaning that both he and Praveen have big smashes which can create unstoppable attacks, with both women capable of finishing off any replies at the net.
“We’ve been behind a lot of the time this week, but we have been very resilient," he added. "We took two weeks at home to prepare for this tournament and I think it has paid off.”
The Adcocks wrested back the initiative at the end in today's semi-final with a flick serve winner from Gabby to reach 18-17, and two hard-to-read left-handed smashes from Chris which earned match points at 20-19 and 21-20.
The second of them was finished by a smash and overhead drop combination from Chris.
“We’ve done really well, but this will be our great dream to win it,” said Gabby, who won the Commonwealth Games gold medal with Chris in Glasgow last year.
They will face Ko Sung Hyun and Kim Ha Na, the world’s sixth ranked pair from Korea, who may start slight favourites but had to battle hard to get past Lee Chun Hei and Chau Hoi Wah by 21-15, 20-22, 21-12.
Earlier the top seeds in the men’s doubles, Lee Yong Dae and Yoo Yeon Seong, who came into the tournament as favourites after a run of consecutive Superseries titles late in the season, were knocked out of the competition by Indonesia’s Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan, the same pair who denied them world championship gold in August.
With a noisy and supportive crowd behind them, Setiawan and Ahsan triumphed 21-17, 22-24, 21-15.
The penultimate rally was a contender for the rally of the tournament. It lasted 50 shots, at the end of which Ahsan dived to block back a Yoo smash, got up and attempted a kill which caused Yoo also to throw himself across the court, only narrowly failing to retrieve it.
“We can win it now, if we approach it the same way,” said Ahsan. They face Chai Biao and Hong Wei, a rising Chinese pair who saved five match points to win 17-21, 21-19, 24-22 against Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen, the Olympic silver medallists from Denmark.
Before that however the top seeds did make a final – in the women’s doubles, with a pairing which often attracts extra attention.
Luo Ying and Luo Yu, twin sisters from China, won 21-19, 21-19 against Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi, the defending champions from Japan, in a match full of manoeuvring and changes in fortune.
There was plenty of time for spectators to enjoy both pairs’ skills and speed and to recognise which Luo was which, because though it only lasted two games the match lasted almost an hour and a half.
Slow conditions made quick finishes to the rallies rare, placing a premium on patience, tenacity, and good positioning.
The two Luos know well that if they rotate the front and back positions while attacking their opponents may not in a split second recognise which of them is at the net. “It’s an advantage, our opponents can get confused – psychologically,” says Luo Ying.
This could conceivably have been a factor in the steady recoveries which the twins made in both games, from 15-17 down in the first game and from 11-15 and 17-19 in the second.
China, which had player in the semi-finals of both singles events, kept in with a chance of winning four of the five events. But there may yet be other nations – apart from the English – who will have something to say about that.
The remaining semi-finals will be played on Saturday, with the finals commencing at 1pm on Sunday.
