Harald Andersson world ranked 387 took yet another scalp on his way to reach the quarter finals of the Under 21 Men’s singles. The ice cool swede who plies his trade in the Pingisligan for club Sparrvagen was just “borg like” in his demolition of Jean Lauric of Belgium world ranked 244 to reach the last eight. Already Harald had been responsible for the departure of our own Liam Pitchford in the previous round, and in the Men’s doubles with his partner Mohammed Al-Saadi narrowly beat Chris Doran and Matt Ware 11-9 in the fith end. He now has to look forward to a clash with Hyun Deok Soe to fight for a place in the semi final. The Swedish player said after the match ” I played very well with good serves and returns and kept the ball on the table putting my opponent under pressure all the time- I am really looking forward to my next match later today against the Korean player” The Swede came through in straight sets 11-4, 11-8, 11-2.

On the adjacent table England’s number 1 player Paul Drinkhall world ranked 88 suffered an unexpected last 16 defeat at the hands of Patryk Chojnowski world ranked 274 going out of the Under 21 Men’s event 2-3. Paul played at times some brilliant exchanges to come back from a 0-2 deficit in games taking the next two games to level but the Polish player proved just too consistent for our Number 1 player and took an early lead in the final end that Paul just could not retrieve. The result went to Chojnowski 11-7, 11-8, 4-11, 1-11, 11-4.

Play continues in the Under 21 Men’s.