Mairs enjoy perfect ending despite quarter-final defeat
Greg and Jenny Mairs hailed a “perfect ending” to their badminton careers despite a quarter-final defeat on Day 4 of the YONEX All England.
The mixed doubles pair were beaten 21-19 21-14 by Lee Jong Min and Chae Yu Jung of South Korea in the last eight at the Utilita Arena.
The loss marked the end of their time competing in international tournaments as they hang up their rackets to focus on their thriving YouTube channel Badminton Insight.
“It was the perfect ending,” Greg said. “We couldn’t have asked for any more.
“With our family, friends, so many subscribers in the audience, it brings us goosebumps.
“This makes me more excited to help more of those guys, enjoy and improve their badminton. That is going to be so rewarding for us moving forward.
“We are going to do everything that we have wanted to do but up until now we just have not had the time to do.
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“We are really excited to do that and spend more of our time doing that, rather than working it around our playing careers.”
With the first game on a knife edge at 19-18, a shot from Lee struck the top of the net and dropped in and that proved crucial as before the South Korean pair took the game with three straight points.
The early part of the second game mirrored the first, with the pairs unable to be separated before a run of points helped move Chae and Lee into a lead.
After the Mairs had pulled a point back, there was a defiant roar from the arena to will them on but the comeback did not arrive.
Instead, the pair signed off from professional badminton with a huge ovation.
Jenny added: “Today tops it all, to say we have played at the Friday at the All England what a dream come true.
“If you had asked us let alone last year, two weeks ago if we could have achieved that we probably would have said no so I think what a dream ending for us.
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“The crowd has been amazing this week, the support not just from the fans in the hall, all of the volunteers and all the support online has just been so amazing.
“It has really helped us throughout the week and we are just excited to help as many people improve their game.”
The Mairs’ run to the quarter-finals brought with it the pair’s first-ever win in the main draw of the All England.
They flew the flag for the home hopes on Day 4 as the final English players in contention and were well supported including by their subscribers.
Now, attentions will turn to celebrating their achievements, with a healthy amount of editing with their next and final competition vlog eagerly expected on Sunday.
“There has been a lot of videos where, if we have had all this time and were not doing all of our training, we would have made them even better,” she said.
“But there has been a lot of time where we have had to say this is good enough, so I’m really excited to try and make those videos almost perfect as we can.”
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Photo courtesy of Badmintonphoto.
