DUBAI, UAE, December 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
After two tough matches and a heartbreaking loss to the Korean pair of Ko Sung Hyun and Kim Ha Na, a semi-final spot seemed out of reach for husband and wife pair England's Chris and Gabby Adcock. However a hard fought win over Germany's Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels (21-16, 21-17) kept them in the running tonight, but they had a nerve racking wait until the last match of the evening before their fate was decided.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141219/723185-a )
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141219/723185-b )
After losing to the Koreans 14-21, 21-18, 22-20, on Wednesday, the Adcocks were overwhelmed by the Chinese pair of Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei, 21-14, 21-17 yesterday.
But in literally a last gasp effort, they pulled off a great win over the Germans to keep their hopes alive. Fighting a chest infection and at times struggling to breathe, a determined Gabby Adcock gave it her all tonight.
Chris Adcock said after the match "We were so close in that first game against the Koreans, we had match point, we've been re-living that since then. Obviously yesterday was really tough against the World and Olympic champions. We put in a decent performance, but we knew every point counted so we tried our hardest and today, and this is probably one of the best performances we've had all week against a tricky German pair."
A clearly unwell Gabby said "I have a chest infection, I've been having oxygen before the match, but I'm really struggling".
"We knew that we could beat everybody in our group, we knew it would be very difficult especially against the Chinese. But that's the beauty of the group system, you've always got a chance. Our confidence was high coming in, our preparation was rocked a bit with illness but we've managed to power through it, maybe it took a bit of the pressure off. We're confident but it's just a shame we're not fully fit.
"The crowd was great, we definitely feed of the crowd support, it's a great place, great arena and when you're winning it's a great feeling.
With the Chinese pair Zhang and Zhao winning the last match in the pool against the Koreans 21-12, 21-18, the Adcocks made the semi-finals and will face Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei again tomorrow.
Of their next match "We're going to enjoy it, it's going to be a hard game no matter who it is. It's important we just go one point at a time. We've been trying to slow down for Gabby but our game style is quite fast so it's amazing she's battling through it."
