Sam Walker has a chance to make English table tennis history tomorrow after reaching the Men’s Doubles final at the Czech Open, alongside Truls Moregard of Sweden.
The top seeds defeated Indian seventh seeds Snehit Suravajjula & Jeet Chandra 3-2 (8-11, 15-13, 11-6, 9-11, 11-4) in the semi-finals and face unseeded French duo Leo de Nodrest & Lilian Bardet in the final. The match is at 2.10pm UK time on Wednesday.
Walker could become the first English player to win a World Tour doubles title and is only the third English player to have reached a Men’s Doubles final, Liam Pitchford & Paul Drinkhall having – at the Platinum-level Qatar Open last year – become the first pairing to reach a final on either the ITTF World Tour or at an ITTF Challenge Series tournament since the Tour started in 1996.
Walker & Moregard had earlier beaten Swiss pair Pedro Osiro & Cedric Tschanz 3-0 in the quarter-finals.
The team-mates became rivals in the quarter-finals of the Mixed Doubles, Walker & Tin-Tin Ho facing Moregard and his Swedish compatriot Linda Bergstrom. It was a remarkable match in which the third game went to 24-22 and which was decided 12-10 in the fifth in favour of the Swedes.
Ho & Tsaptsinos were defeated in the quarter-finals of the Women’s Doubles, 3-1 by the German-Chilean combination of Franziska Schreiner & Paulina Vega.
There was also defeat for fifth seed Ho in the last 16 of the Women’s Singles as she went down in four close games to Audrey Zarif of France, the ninth seed.
Results
Women’s Singles
Round of 16
Audrey Zarif (FRA) bt Tin-Tin Ho 4-0 (11-9, 11-8, 13-11, 11-6)
Men’s Doubles
Quarter-finals
Sam Walker (ENG) & Truls Moregard (SWE) bt Pedro Osiro & Cedric Tschanz (SUI) 3-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-5)
Semi-finals
Walker & Moregard bt Snehit Suravajjula & Jeet Chandra (IND) 3-2 (8-11, 15-13, 11-6, 9-11, 11-4)
Women’s Doubles
Quarter-finals
Franziska Schreiner (GER) & Paulina Vega (CHI) bt Ho & Tsaptsinos 3-1 (13-11, 3-11, 11-7, 11-8)
Mixed Doubles
Quarter-finals
Truls Moregard & Linda Bergstrom (SWE) bt Walker & Ho 3-2 (9-11, 11-7, 24-22, 9-11, 12-10)