Tin-Tin Ho kept up her 100% record to reach the last 16 at the European Under-21 Championships, but only after withstanding a brilliant comeback by Poland’s Julia Slazak.

Having won her earlier matches in the second group stage in Portugal, Ho faced Slazak in the last match, and it looked to be plain sailing to top the group as she took a 3-0 lead.

Slazak had other ideas, though, and fought back to level, before Ho closed out the decider 11-9.

Earlier, the English No 1 started the day with a good 4-2 victory over Xuan Zhang of Spain, who at 98 is 17 places higher than Ho in the world rankings.

She then defeated her doubles partner Karoline Mischek of Austria – who also mounted a good comeback from 3-1 down to take it to a decider.

Ho’s last-16 opponent will be Oceane Guisnel of France at 2.15pm UK time on Saturday. Before that, Ho & Mischek have their last-16 doubles tie agaist Klara Cakol & Marta Vukelic of Croatia at 10.35am.

Results

Women’s Singles
Second stage
Group G
Tin-Tin Ho bt Xuan Zhang (ESP) 4-2 (6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 12-10, 6-11, 11-3)
Ho bt Karoline Mischek (AUT) 4-3 (11-4, 10-12, 12-10, 17-15, 7-11, 8-11, 11-8)
Ho bt Julia Slazak (POL) 4-3 (11-9, 11-7, 11-4, 8-11, 8-11, 9-11, 11-9)