England’s Liam Pitchford has pulled off two impressive victories back-to-back to ensure that all home nations interest is not lost as this years QOROS World Table Tennis Championships heads towards its climax in Suzhou, China.
Pitchford overcame a legendary figure of European Table Tennis Kalinikos Kreanga in the Round of 128 in an epic battle which you can view here.
In the next round he stepped up again, this time getting the better of WR Number 20 Tiago Apolonia (POR) by a 4-2 scoreline. He will now face former runner-up Joo Sae Hyuk (KOR) in the Last 32 at 07:00 BST tomorrow morning. For live coverage tune in to http://www.ittf.com/itTV/ .
Elsewhere, Europe’s greatest hope and 5th seed Dimitrij Ovtcharov has crashed out, falling to Lee Sang Su (KOR) 4-3 in the Last 64.
And meanwhile, Pitchford’s team-mate Paul Drinkhall’s challenge ended at the same stage, as he lost 4-1 against Hong Kong’s Chun Ting Wong (WR 47).