Liam Pitchford's World Championship hopes are ended
Liam Pitchford's World Championships came to a premature end when the Chesterfield athlete was knocked out in the first round of the singles.
Pitchford was seeded into the first round proper – the last 128 – but was defeated by Iran’s world No 128 Nima Alamian.
In the proverbial rollercoaster match, he led twice and then recovered from 3-2 down only to see his opponent win 4-3 (8-11, 13-11, 8-11, 11-8, 12-10, 10-12, 11-9) to go into the last 64.
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Hide AdIt follows his defeat in the last 64 of the doubles, alongside Paul Drinkhall, in Dusseldorf on Tuesday.
Afterwards, Pitchford tweeted: “Tough loss to take after having a lead in the last set..been an up and down season for me but I will work harder to make next season better.
“Thank you for all the support everyone has given me and I hope I can bring some more for you to cheer about soon.”