Golden duo Liam Pitchford & Paul Drinkhall picked up their doubles partnership where they left off to sail through the first round at the Bulgaria Open today.

The pair, who together won Commonwealth Games gold in Australia in April, wasted little time in seeing off Dutch duo Ewout Oostwouder & Laurens Tromer in three straight.

Click here to watch the match in full

They will next face Marcelo Aguirre (PAR) & Thiago Monteiro (BRA) in the second preliminary round, at 11.30am UK time on Wednesday. The match, on Table 4, will be streamed on the ITTF website.

Both men were also in good touch in the singles, racking up 4-0 wins in their opening group matches, but David McBeath was beaten in five in his opening group match.

Pitchford’s second group match, against Benjamin Brossier of France, is on Table 1 and will be streamed on the ITTF website at 9.50am UK time on Wednesday.

Results

Men’s Singles
Qualifying Group 1
Liam Pitchford bt Leonardo Mutti (ITA) 4-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-7, 11-5)

Group 8
Paul Drinkhall bt Teodor Alexandrov (BUL) 4-0 (14-12, 11-6, 11-6, 11-9)

Group 14
Zsolt Peto (SRB) bt David McBeath 4-1 (7-11, 11-2, 11-9, 11-9, 12-10)

Men’s Doubles
Preliminary round
Liam Pitchford & Paul Drinkhall bt Ewout Oostwouder & Laurens Tromer (NED) 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-9)