Marcus Ellis admitted his shock as he and his partner of just two months reached the main draw of the men’s doubles at the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships.

Ellis and Liverpudlian Tom Wolfenden only joined forces in January and, after making a late entry into the prestigious All England Open, battled through and claimed two opening day qualifying wins.

They defeated Singapore duo Yong Zhao Ashton Chen and Zhao Jiang Terry Yeo 18-21, 21-16, 21-18 to set up an encounter with Germans Peter Kaesbauer and Josche Zurwonne in Birmingham.

While the encounter appeared to be a tough one on paper for Ellis and Wolfenden, they made light work of the Germans, seeded No.3 for qualifying, and comfortably won in straight sets 21-15 21-17.

And now that they are into the main draw at the All England Open in the West Midlands, Ellis wants to get used to feeling shocked and believes anything can happen.

“I think it’s fantastic considering we’ve come out of the reserves the day before the tournament and we had no idea who we were going to be playing against,” he said.

“We’re absolutely delighted to make it through but I do think we’ve performed really well so I feel like deserve to be in there.

“I think we’re taking it one game at a time at the moment because we’re improving every time we play together and that’s the way we look at it.

“If we keep trying to improve our performance then the result will take care of itself in the end. I think we can go into our next game feeling very confident in ourselves.”

After encounters with pairs from Singapore and Germany, Wolfenden and Ellis now face a true all-England affair as they face compatriots Chris Langridge and Peter Mills in the first round proper.

And, despite being underdogs for the match in Birmingham, Ellis believes the lack of pressure on them could prove to be an advantage and help them cause further upsets.

“We are up against some fellow English mates so it will be an interesting game for us. I think because we haven’t played together a lot there’s less pressure,” he added.

“We threw everything we had into it and I think we can do the same next time out because whoever we play the pressure is going to be on them.”

Tickets for the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships at the NIA in Birmingham are available at www.allenglandbadminton.com or call the box office on 0844 444 9994