Tom Jarvis was defeated by world No 99 Yukiya Uda of Japan at the Korea Open today.

The 19-year-old competed well, particularly in the first two games of the second preliminary round match, but his opponent gradually exerted his authority and pulled away to win in five.

The previous day, Jarvis was surprised to have his own cheerleading section in the hall as he made it through the first preliminary round.

Jarvis is the only English player competing in Busan and he won 4-2 against Lee Chia-Sheng of Chinese Taipei, to the delight of a small pocket of unidentified supporters waving England flags.

The Skegness athlete spoke of his surprise to the ITTF, saying: I went down to serve the first point and I saw all these English flags and thought ‘what’s going on here?’. I don’t really know who they are but it’s nice to have people here supporting me!”

https://twitter.com/ittfworld/status/1145959447090495488

Results

Men’s Singles
Preliminary Round 1
Tom Jarvis bt Lee Chia-Sheng (TPE) 4-2 (11-3, 13-11, 4-11, 7-11, 12-10, 11-9)

Preliminary Round 2
Yukiya Uda (JPN) bt Jarvis 4-1 (12-10, 10-12, 11-6, 11-7, 11-2)