Paul Drinkhall and Tin-Tin Ho are through their opening singles matches at the Hungarian Open and Drinkhall & Sam Walker, and Ho & Karoline Mischek, also won their opening doubles matches.
Drinkhall came in at the second preliminary round stage of the singles, where he defeated Alexandru Cazacu of Romania (WR 249) in six games to set up a meeting with Niagol Stoyanov of Italy in the third preliminary round.
Drinkhall, who defeated Stoyanov (WR 103) during his run to the quarter-finals of the Portugal Open last week, needs to win that match and one more to join Liam Pitchford, the ninth seed, in the main draw.
Tom Jarvis started a round earlier and came through in five against Italy’s Matteo Mutti (WR 421). That set up a tie against world No 44 Andrej Gacina, who was part of the Croatia team which qualified for the Olympics at Great Britain’s expense last month.
There was to be no element of revenge for Jarvis, who was an unused part of the squad for that defeat, though he held his own in a five-game loss which arguably hinged on Gacina winning the third 14-12.
Walker entered in the second preliminary round but was beaten in four straight by Feng Yi-Hsin of Chinese Taipei.
Ho is the only English woman competing and she started with a comfortable 4-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-7, 11-5) win over Agata Zakrzewska of Poland (WR 484). Her second preliminary round match is a much tougher looking clash with world No 43 Polina Mikhailova of Russia on Wednesday.
In the doubles, Drinkhall & Walker teamed up for a good 3-2 win over Huang Yan-Cheng & Sun Chia-Hung of Chinese Taipei, holding their nerve in the decider after their opponents had come from two sets down to level.
Click here to watch Drinkhall & Walker v Huang & Sun (registration required).
The English pair next play Anton Kallberg & Elias Ranefur of Sweden tomorrow, with the winners going into the main draw.
Pitchford & Jarvis did not make it through, however, as they were defeated in four by Turkish combination Ibrahim Gunduz & Abdullah Yigenler.
In the Women’s Doubles, European Under-21 champions Ho & Mischek beat Camila Arguelles & Ana Codina of Argentina 3-1 (11-5, 10-12, 11-4, 11-6) and next face Izabela Lupulesku & Sabina Surjan of Serbia for a place in the main draw.
Results
Men’s Singles
Preliminary round 1
Tom Jarvis bt Matteo Mutti (ITA) 4-1 (11-8, 11-7, 11-9, 10-12, 11-9)
Preliminary round 2
Paul Drinkhall bt Alexandru Cazacu (ROU) 4-2 (11-5, 11-7, 8-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-7)
Feng Yi-Hsin (TPE) bt Sam Walker 4-0 (11-8, 11-6, 11-3, 12-10)
Andrej Gacina (CRO) bt Jarvis 4-1 (11-8, 10-12, 14-12, 11-7, 11-8)
Women’s Singles
Preliminary round 1
Tin-Tin Ho bt Agata Zakrzewska (POL) 4-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-7, 11-5)
Men’s Doubles
Preliminary round 1
Paul Drinkhall & Sam Walker bt Huang Yan-Cheng & Sun Chia-Hung (TPE) 3-2 (11-8, 13-11, 7-11, 9-11, 11-7)
Ibrahim Gunduz & Abdullah Yigenler (TUR) bt Liam Pitchford & Tom Jarvis 3-1 (3-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-2)
Women’s Doubles
Preliminary round 1
Tin-Tin Ho & Karoline Mischek (AUT) bt Camila Arguelles & Ana Codina (ARG) 3-1 (11-5, 10-12, 11-4, 11-6)