Liam Pitchford & Paul Drinkhall are through to the doubles quarter-finals at the Swedish Open, but Pitchford has exited the singles at the hands of Dimitrij Ovtcharov.
The doubles pair were due to face Chinese greats Ma Long and Xu Xin in the last 16, but an injury to world and Olympic champion Ma Long meant the Chinese pair, seeded No 2 here, had to withdraw.
It put Pitchford & Drinkhall, who are ranked No 17 of the pairs in the competition, into a quarter-final against eighth seeds Tomokazu Harimoto & Yuto Kizukuri of Japan at 10.45am UK time on Friday.
Meanwhile, English involvement in the Men’s Singles came to an end today when World No 5 Ovtcharov beat Pitchford 4-0, avenging the defeat inflicted on him by Pitchford at the Czech Open in August.
Pitchford, who dropped one place to No 24 in the new world rankings released today, held game points in the first and fourth games but went down 13-11, 11-7, 11-4, 13-11 in the last-32 clash.
Speaking after the match, Pitchford said:
I was disappointed with how I played, but he played a solid game and didn’t let me get into it. There’s plenty to take from it and work on for next time though.
Click below to watch the match highlights.
Drinkhall, Sam Walker, Tom Jarvis and Andrew Baggaley were all knocked out at earlier stages of the competition.
Results
Under-21 Men’s Singles
Round of 32
Tom Jarvis bt Jeet Chandra 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-6)
Round of 16
Minha Hwang bt Tom Jarvis 3-0 (11-9, 11-8, 10-12)
Men’s Singles
Preliminary Round 1
Tom Jarvis bt Joan Masip 4-2 (7-11, 11-8, 11-5, 7-11, 11-5, 11-3)
Diogo Chen bt Andrew Baggaley 4-3 (11-6, 12-10, 10-12, 5-11, 11-6, 6-11, 11-6)
Preliminary Round 2
Par Gerell (SWE) bt Sam Walker 4-2 (11-6, 11-7, 11-7,8 -11, 2-11, 11-3)
Kirill Gerassimenko (KAZ) bt Jarvis 4-2 (9-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6)
Liam Pitchford bt Anders Lind (DEN) 4-3 (8-11, 12-10, 4-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-7)
Yukiya Uda (JPN) bt Paul Drinkhall 4-1 (10-12, 13-11, 11-9,11-9, 11-9)
Preliminary Round 3
Pitchford bt Thiago Monteiro (BRA) 4-2 (11-6, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6)
Preliminary Round 4
Pitchford bt Kanak Jha (USA) 4-1 (11-9, 11-3, 11-7, 12-14, 11-4)
Round of 32
Dimitrij Ovtcharov bt Pitchford 4-0 (13-11, 11-7, 11-4, 13-11)
Men’s Doubles
Preliminary Round 1
Jarvis & Kanak Jha (USA) bt Sharath Kamal Achanta & Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND) 3-0 (13-11, 16-14, 11-8)
Drinkhall & Pitchford bt Marcelo Aguirre (PAR) & Thiago Monteiro (BRA) 3-0 (11-2, 11-3, 11-7)
Ham Yu Song (PRK) & Jang Woojin (KOR) bt Walker & Tobias Rasmussen (DEN) 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-7)
Preliminary Round 2
Pitchford & Drinkhall bt Eric Jouti & Gustavo Tsuboi (BRA) 3-2 (11-9, 10-12, 11-3, 8-11, 11-7)
Jaehyun An & Seungmin Cho bt Jarvis & Jha 3-0 (11-8, 13-11, 11-3)
Round of 16
Pitchford & Drinkhall vs Ma Long & Xu Xin (CHN) 3-INJ