Liam Pitchford made short work of last week’s Portugal Open champion to romp into the quarter-finals of the Hungarian Open today.

Pitchford was up against Germany’s Qiu Dang, ranked well below him at No 77 in the world but in good form having won the Challenge Plus World Tour event in Lisbon last week, beating Paul Drinkhall on the way.

But ninth-seeded Pitchford was not troubled by Qiu, taking only 27 minutes to see him off in four straight, for the combined loss of only 25 points.

Along the way, he included another behind-the-back winner – a shot which is becoming something of a trademark after he did it twice in a match against Jun Mizutani at the Austrian Open in November.

Click here to watch Pitchford v Qiu Dang (registration required).

Pitchford’s quarter-final will be on Saturday against Sweden’s Kristian Karlsson, the 11th seed and world No 28, who beat second seed Hugo Calderano of Brazil 4-3 today.

Tin-Tin Ho and her Austrian partner Karoline Mischek went out of the Women’s Doubles at the quarter-final stage, despite the pair making a perfect start against second seeds Doo Hoi Kem & Lee Ho Ching by taking the first game 11-4.

That only seemed to inspire the duo from Hong Kong, who showed their class from the second game onwards to take the next three for the combined loss of 12 points.

Results

Men’s Singles
Round of 16
Pitchford bt Qiu Dang (GER) 4-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7)

Women’s Doubles
Quarter-finals
Doo Hoi Kem & Lee Ho Ching (HKG) bt Tin-Tin Ho & Karoline Mischek 3-1 (4-11, 11-6, 11-1, 11-5)

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