Liam make it to last 32 stage at European Championships

A stirring comeback from 3-0 down was in vain as Liam Pitchford exited the European Championships men's singles in the last 32.

The Chesterfield athlete was seeded 22nd at the tournament in Budapest, meaning he went straight into the last 64, where he impressively beat Tomasz Lewandowski of Poland 4-1 (11-5, 11-3, 2-11, 11-3, 11-9).

That set up a match against seventh seed Stefan Fegerl of Austria, ranked No 22 in the world to Pitchford’s 49.

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It looked bleak for the Englishman as Fegerl took three close sets to go 3-0 up, but Pitchford stormed back to level.

It looked as if the momentum had shifted, only for Fegerl to take the first four points of the decider and never look back, finally sealing it 4-3 (11-9, 12-10, 11-9, 9-11, 4-11, 10-12, 11-4).

There was consolation in the mixed doubles, where Pitchford and Tin-Tin Ho defeated two seeded pairs on their way to the quarter-finals.

The duo, who won Commonwealth Games silver at Glasgow 2014, showed their partnership is still solid as they beat Czech pair Tomas Polansky and Renata Strbikova 3-2 (11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 11-13, 13-11) in the preliminary round to reach the main draw.

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There, they first came from 2-0 down to defeat 14th seeds Joao Geraldo & Yu Fu of Portugal 3-2 (6-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-8) and followed up by sinking the seventh seeds Wang Yang of Slovakia & Polina Mikhailova of Russia 3-1 (9-11, 11-6, 14-12, 13-11).

That put them into the last eight, where they were defeated by third seeds and eventual silver medallists Mattias Karlsson & Matilda Ekholm of Sweden, though they acquitted themselves well in a 3-0 (11-9, 14-12, 11-8) defeat.

In the men’s doubles, Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall were seeded 13th and won their first match against Nandor Ecseki and Bence Majoros of the host nation 4-2 (9-11, 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7) to reach the last 16.

But they found sixth seeds and eventual silver medallists Jakub Dyjas and Daniel Gorak in top form, seeing their Polish opponents triumph 4-1 (12-10, 9-11, 12-10, 11-3, 11-5).

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Following his exit from the singles tournament, Pitchford posted on Twitter: “Plenty of things to take away and try to put right in training and the next tournament. Wasn’t to be, bowed out of the Europeans last 32 to Fegerl 4-3, gave it my all but the last set just slipped away.”

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