Marcus puts on an Ell of a show to reach quarter-finals at All England
MARCUS Ellis surged into a pair of quarter-finals at the Yonex All England Championships in Birmingham.
The Huddersfield-born player, who scooped men’s doubles Olympic bronze in 2016 alongside Chris Langridge, joined forces with his partner in crime once again as the duo beat fifth seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto to book a last-eight clash.
And Ellis also kept his hopes of mixed doubles glory alive, toppling fourth seeds Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino alongside Lauren Smith to maintain English hopes of having a maiden Yonex All England winner since 2005.
The 30-year-old Ellis said: “Right at the start of the week it feels like a mammoth task to get through the whole week, whereas now we’re halfway through the week and you can see the end goal in sight.
“Sometimes the first couple of rounds are really, really tough as there are so many good players, and you could play really well and lose.
“But we’re in the quarterfinals now, and it kind of feels like you’ve only got to win a couple more games. If you told me on Monday I was going to make two quarter-finals I would have been very, very happy.”
Ellis and Smith got the party started on Thursday afternoon with a scintillating 21-15 21-10 victory, before the veteran shuttler recharged his batteries before teaming up with Langridge in one of the day’s final games. The experienced duo then sent the home crowd into raptures once again, winning 21-14 21-15 to tee up two quarter-finals bouts for Ellis.