Paul Drinkhall went the furthest of four English players who performed at a star-studded German Open.

Drinkhall, world ranked No 37 at the time of the tournament draw, entered at the second preliminary round stage, beating Yuma Tsuboi (JPN, 162) 4-0 (11-9, 11-2, 11-9, 11-6).

He then beat Jens Lundqvist (SWE, 71) 4-2 (11-9, 11-7, 12-10, 14-16, 7-11, 11-7) before his run came to an end in the fourth preliminary round at the hands of world No 48 Chun Ting Wong of Hong Kong by a 4-3 margin (5-11, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5, 5-11, 9-11).

Liam Pitchford entered at the same stage as Drinkhall, beating Adam Szudi (HUN, 260) 4-2 (11-9, 11-6, 13-11, 7-11, 13-15, 11-6) before losing out to Ruwen Filus (GER, 67) 4-2 (5-11, 12-10, 7-11, 8-11, 11-9, 9-11).

The event was won by China’s Ma Long, who beat compatriot Zhang Jike 4-3 in the final.

Drinkhall came up against Lundqvist again in the first round of the doubles, with he and Pitchford beating Lundqvist & Jon Persson 3-2 (11-9, 14-12, 7-11, 5-11, 11-9). The English pair then lost 3-2 to Koreans Minhyeok Kim & Ganghyeon Park in the last 32 (11-4, 9-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-13).

Sam Walker beat Marton Szita (No 343) of Hungary 4-3 (10-12, 11-7, 11-6, 11-13, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6) in the first preliminary round of the men’s singles then lost 4-3 to 77th-ranked Russian Alexey Liventsov (11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 11-13).

Click here to watch Walker’s match against Szita

David McBeath lost 4-2 to Robin Devos (No 171) of Belgium in the first preliminary round (5-11, 11-2, 7-11, 11-7, 7-11, 9-11).

In the under-21 singles, Walker lost 3-0 to Japan’s world No 81 Masaki Yoshida (7-11, 9-11, 6-11) in the last 16, having beaten Germany’s Dennis Klein 3-0, France’s Paul Gauzy 3-1 and Portugal’s Diogo Chen 3-2 in the preliminary rounds.

In the doubles, Walker and his partner Alvaro Robles of Spain lost 3-1 to Canadian pair Pierre-Luc Theriault & Eugene Wang (7-11, 11-4, 7-11, 9-11).

McBeath & Daniel Dan of Romania lost 3-2 to Egypt’s Khalid Assar & Mohamed Shouman (11-8, 7-11, 11-2, 8-11, 2-11).

Paul Stimpson
March 23, 2015