Liam Pitchford suffered an agonising final-game defeat at the Hong Kong Open.

Up against South Korea’s Cho Seungmin, ranked four places above him at No 54 in the world rankings, Pitchford saw his opponent fight back from 3-1 down to claim victory 11-9 in the seventh.

Pitchford had earlier defeated Slovenia’s world No 70 Bojan Tokic in his opening match of the tournament. In the doubles, he and partner Kai Zhang of the USA were defeated at the first hurdle by Korean pair Kim Donghyun & Lim Jonghoon.

Results

Men’s Singles
Second preliminary round
Liam Pitchford bt Bojan Tokic (SLO) 4-2 (11-3, 11-3, 11-6, 8-11, 4-11, 11-6)

Third preliminary round
Cho Seungmin (KOR) bt Pitchford 4-3 (9-11, 4-11, 11-9, 6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-9)

Men’s Doubles
First preliminary round
Kim Donghyun & Lim Jonghoon (KOR) bt Liam Pitchford & Kai Zhang (USA) 3-1 (10-12, 11-2, 14-12, 11-8)