Sam Walker & David McBeath will carry England’s hopes into the last 32 of the men’s doubles at the World Championships, but Paul Drinkhall & Liam Pitchford are out.

Walker & McBeath enjoyed a 4-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-8, 13-11) victory over Gaston Alto & Horacio Cifuentes of Argentina and will next face France’s Simon Gauzy & Quentin Robinot at 5.45pm UK time on Wednesday for a place in the last 16.

Gauzy is a familiar foe for Walker, who beat him in the Olympics to complete Great Britain’s memorable 3-2 victory over the French.

However, England’s No 1 pair Drinkhall & Pitchford bowed out in the last 64 at the hands of Sharath Kamal Achanta & Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, going down 4-2 (10-12, 11-8, 9-11, 12-10, 15-13, 11-6).

It means they missed out on a plum tie against world No 1 Ma Long & Germany’s Timo Boll in the last 32.

Earlier in Dusseldorf, Drinkhall & Pitchford started with two routine three-set victories in their preliminary matches to move into the main draw, seeing off opposing pairs from French Polynesia and Dominican Republic.

Walker & McBeath defeated opponents from Ivory Coast/Senegal in four games and then came from 2-0 down to defeat a pair from Singapore to books their place in the last 64.

But there was disappointment for McBeath in the singles as he was beaten in his second group match and went out of the competition. His conqueror was Anh Tu Nguyen of Vietnam, who won 4-1 (9-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8).

England’s top three start their campaign in the singles on Wednesday. Drinkhall faces Cazuo Matsumoto of Brazil at 4pm UK time, Pitchford is up against Nima Alamian of Iran at 1pm and Walker plays Jakub Dyjas of Poland, also at 1pm.

Scotland’s Gavin Rumgay and Charlotte Carey of Wales both won their two group matches to move into the preliminary rounds of the men’s and women’s singles respectively but all the other home countries players were knocked out in the groups.

Rumgay then beat Hungary’s Nandor Ecseki 4-2 to move into the main draw, where he faces a huge match against home favourite Timo Boll – the winner will meet the victor of the Walker-Dyjas clash.

Carey was handed a bye in the preliminary round and will face Kristin Silbereisen of Germany in the last 128 at 10am on Wednesday.

Results

Men’s Doubles
Second Preliminary Round
David McBeath & Sam Walker bt Oba Kizito Oba (CIV) & Hamidou Sow (SEN) 3-1 (11-6, 7-11, 11-6, 11-2)
Paul Drinkhall & Liam Pitchford bt Ocean Belrose & Kenji Hotan (PYF) 3-0 (11-1, 11-7, 11-2)

Third preliminary round
McBeath & Walker bt Zhe Yu Clarence Chew & Shao Feng Ethan Poh (SGP) 3-2 (8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-5)
Drinkhall & Pitchford bt Samuel Galves & Emil Santos (DOM) 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-6)

Round of 64
McBeath & Walker bt Gaston Alto & Horacio Cifuentes (ARG) 4-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-8, 13-11)
Sharath Kamal Achanta & Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND) bt Drinkhall & Pitchford 4-2 (10-12, 11-8, 9-11, 12-10, 15-13, 11-6)

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