England's Adcocks Felled By Illness In Semis Of BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Finals

DUBAI, UAE, December 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

After forcing their way into the Mixed  Doubles semi-finals of the BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Finals with a hard fought win over Germany's Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels last night, England's lone representatives in the event were unable to progress to the finals after going down to China's World Champions Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei today, 21-9, 21-12.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141220/723189-a )

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141220/723189-b )

With Gabby Adcock suffering from a chest infection, the pair were disappointed to not be able to play their best today against a team they had defeated once before.

A clearly disappointed Chris Adcock said after the game "Gabby's feeling a lot worse today, we knew we only had a small chance of playing, we didn't know if we were going to have to withdraw or not before, and during the game too. We thought we'd go out there and try and win from defence which really isn't our game, but there's not much you can do against one of the best pairs when you've got this situation.

"We've beaten them before, and they're obviously very good but it's hard in this situation. Yesterday we said we were surprised we were even playing, it's good to get to the semi but it's really unfortunate we couldn't play because of that reason. It's frustrating obviously but we didn't know if we'd make the first game let alone the semi."

Of their plans now, Chris said "Next up is Christmas, hopefully we can rest and Gabby will be better, we've been going through a really heavy training block back home so we'll keep that going. First up after that is the European Teams event, then the All England which is obviously massive. It's our home event so that's what we're building up for. The home crowd definitely helps, it gets you going, there's always an excitement in England for English teams, hopefully we can use that energy from the crowd."

"We've loved being in Dubai, it's a shame that Gab's not well or we would have done more. Hopefully we'll be back next year."

Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei will tomorrow play the winner of the match between Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen (Denmark) and Liu Cheng/Bao Yixin (China), for the BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Finals Mixed Doubles crown.

SOURCE BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Finals