Chesterfield's Pitchford equals his best on table tennis World Tour

Equalling his best performance on the World Tour, Chesterfield’s table-tennis ace Liam Pitchford reached the semi-finals of the Hungarian Open.

By The Newsroom

Published 24th Feb 2020, 11:35 BST

Updated 24th Feb 2020, 16:34 BST

Liam Pitchford in action at the Hungarian Open.

Seeded ninth for the event, Pitchford started in the last 32 with a 4-2 win (11-2, 10-12, 11-7, 8-11, 11-4, 11-5) over Alexander Shibaev, of Russia.

He followed up with confident 4-0 victories over Qiu Dang, of Germany, who had landed the German Open the previous week, and 11th seed Kristian Karlsson, of Sweden.

Pitchford’s semi was against Yukiya Uda, a rising star from Japan, and the match swung to and fro before Uda pulled away to triumph 4-2 (11-13, 11-8, 11-5, 5-11, 11-6, 11-7).

The Chesterfield man now tackles the national championships in Nottingham.